Little Village Magazine - Issue 127 - February 20-March 6 2013

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2 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
117 E College St. On the Ped Mall
CONTENTS | ISSUE 127
4 Your Town Now
Gilbert/College:
The Saga Continues
Volume 12 | Issue 127
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013
PUBLISHER | Matt Steele
Publisher@LittleVillageMag.com
8
American Reason
I have the POWEEER
10 12 oz Curls
Drinking Age(d)
MANAGING EDITOR | Kate Conlow
Editor@LittleVillageMag.com
11 Chicken Little
North Dodge Nosh
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Andy Brodie, Heather McKeag
Amber Neville
13 Health
Put your A.S.S. into it.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Cecil Adams, Luke Benson, William
Blair, Kit Bryant, Andres Carlstein,
Skaaren Cosse, Steve Crowley, Dawn
Frary, Russell Jaffe, A.C. Hawley,
Megan O'Brien, Vikram Patel, Michael
Roeder, Jared Rogness, John C.
Schlotfelt, Matt Sowada, Roland
Sweet, Zach Tilley, Casey Wagner,
Kent Williams
15 Community
Buying Direct
18 Hot Tin Roof
This month's $100 winner.
PHOTO EDITOR | Dawn Frary
20 Prairie Pop
Say Her Name,
Say Her Name
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Adrianne Behning, Mara Cole,
Dawn Frary, Jay Geisen
22 Pro Tips
Cleanliness is Godliness
DESIGN | Natalia Araujo,
Andrew Desforges, Matt Steele
Read It
23 The Tube
30 Rock-ed
24 ARTicle
A Little Help From Your Friends
26 Talking Movies
Rules of the Game
28 On the Beat
Live Music Preview
30 Local Albums
Sounds of the 319
32 Straight Dope
Just like the movies?
33 News Quirks
Now that's good television.
34 Calendar
On the March
37 A-List
We let Oprah pick this one.
39 Rhyme Time
Still getting lovey dovey
DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT | Drew Bulman
Web@LittleVillageMag.com
Little Village Live
Jessica Hamer, Alex Persels
Live@LittleVillageMag.com
distribution manager | Austin Morford
Distro@LittleVillageMag.com
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CONTACT | P.O. Box 736,
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NEXT ISSUE | Mar. 6, 2013
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
3
Your Town Now
SKAAREN COSSÉ & ZACH TILLY
www.LittleVillageMag.com
Matrix Tricks
T
he Iowa City Council's 5-1 decision
last month to move ahead with Marc
Moen's Chauncey building project
settled the question of what is to become of the corner of Gilbert and College, but
the decision also led some local dissenters to
look upon the council with an eye of suspicion.
One such group with the patently ridiculous film-noir name of "The Iowa Coalition
Against the Shadow" (in part for the massive
shadow to be cast by The Chauncey) has already emerged in response to the city's remarkably opaque decision.
Last summer, the City Council issued a
request for proposals
for
development projects to be
built at the sparsely
populated corner of
College Street and
Gilbert Street. By
January, the candidates had been narrowed to three—The Chauncey, a 20-story
mixed-use skyscraper to include high-end
apartments, a boutique hotel, a bowling alley
and two FilmScene movie theaters; Chauncey
Gardens, an 18-story multi-use building that
featured a new location for the New Pioneer
Co-op, a large outdoor park, and additional retail, office and residential space; and 4Zero4,
an 8-story building that would have housed
the New Pioneer Co-op and the Bike Library.
To decide between the three alternatives,
the council planned to develop a "decision
matrix." The preliminary matrix included five
criteria to be considered, weighed by relative
importance and scored for each proposal.
The breakdown of the proposed matrix—
which can be found on the City Council website under the Jan. 8, 2013 work session—is
as follows:
• Financial considerations including Tax
Increment Financing (TIF) support and potential changes to tax revenues in the future (30%)
• Each plan’s proposed mix of uses within the
building (25%)
• Design elements incorporated into each alternative, including “evidence of sustainable
design” (20%)
4 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
• The mass and scale of the proposed building
(15%)
• Each developer’s statement summarizing its
experience, passion and vision (10%)
When the council was ready to make its
final decision, however, one council member
alleges that his fellow councilors chose not
to use the decision matrix and to move ahead
without it:
"As for why my colleagues on the Council
chose not to use the proposed decision matrix, I
think they could explain their own rationale better than I can," Councilman Jim Throgmorton
said. "I think it is fair to say, however, that they
felt they already knew which project they preferred, and that it would be best to simply have
each of us state our rank orderings."
The five city councilors who preferred The
Chauncey plan (Throgmorton opposed, Michelle
Payne recused herself due to a potential conflict
of interest) were able to approve that project with
little debate and without presenting a concrete
rationale or side-by-side comparison.
Even some who were heavily involved with
the process were left scratching their heads
about how the decision was made.
"The City Council’s decision making process remains puzzling," Matt Hartz, general
manager of New Pioneer Food Co-op said via
email, "particularly regarding financial modeling on TIF and due diligence on the economic
viability of proposed commercial uses."
"I would have liked to see the council focus
a bit more on the financial aspects of the proposals and the capacity of the various developers to complete their projects with minimal
taxpayer subsidy and to return the value to the
taxpayers within a 20-year time frame."
This abject lack of transparency in the council's
decision-making process has rightly angered opponents of The Chauncey, who feel that the city
did not properly consider public concerns about
the project or follow through on its promise to
consider issues of cost and environmental impact,
among others. This dissatisfaction is compounded
by the city's history with development projects led
by Iowa City super-developer Marc Moen.
In the summer of 2012, for example, the
City Council approved up to $2.8 million in
TIF for Moen's 14-story park@201 project in
downtown Iowa City, despite a petition signed
by more than 800 people calling for the council to put the project to a vote.
Opponents of The Chauncey are right to criticize the way the City Council has made their
decisions on recent development projects, but
the aftermath of the
Chauncey Choice has
led a few radical Moen
Truthers to adopt conspiracy theories to explain what they've seen.
To them, the council's
rather hasty Chauncey
decision
constitutes
proof that Marc Moen has the City Council—save
for Jim Throgmorton, the lone dissenter—dancing along to the tune of his fiddle.
In addition to The Chauncey and the
park@201 development, Moen Group currently manages Brewery Square, Plaza Towers
and the buildings occupied by several local
establishments including Joseph's Steakhouse,
Graze, AKAR and The Fieldhouse. He is, unquestionably, Iowa City's go-to developer and
his influence on the town is undeniable.
But short of bribery—which nobody is seriously suggesting—there is no mechanism
by which Moen could unfairly influence the
council's decision-making.
Chalking up the city's decision to build The
Chauncey to Moen's allegedly outsized influence distracts from the real problem, and unfairly demonizes the developer.
"This should not be about individuals, but
about the decision and the project. This is especially true with regard to Marc Moen," Jim
Throgmorton said. "I have a great deal of respect for Marc. This does not mean, however,
that I think this particular project will be good
for the city."
The real problem here was the City
Council’s failure to justify or even explain
their decision. Some might claim that this is
CITY BEAT
just the way it goes: citizens elect their representatives to make decisions on their behalf
and the representatives then make the decisions that they feel will best help their constituency. But this line of reasoning misses a
crucial point: Decisions made by representatives must still be justified using some form
of measurable and understandable standard,
which leads us back to the decision matrix.
By throwing out the rubric, the city flaunted its
own agreed-upon standards and instead chose the
most expensive, most absurdly scaled, and least
environmentally sustainable proposal of the three.
Those three criteria together represented 65% of the
original decision matrix, and in each category, The
Chauncey was arguably the least attractive proposal.
At the time of this writing, none of the city
councilors who supported The Chauncey had
responded to our request for comment.
To add our own editorial opinion into the mix,
we believe that a number of complaints about
The Chauncey are overblown. The considerable
TIF funds—$13.4 million—to be appropriated
to the project will be recouped, per the terms of
CRACKS IN THE SYSTEM?
The City Council requested a
decision-making matrix, then,
according to one member of the
Council, opted not to use it.
There's no reason to believe that the City's
proposed investment is particularly risky either. All of Moen Group's current holdings are
fully occupied; the park@201 development is
on its way toward full occupancy as well.
Some of the aesthetic concerns are certainly
valid; the building will be an absolute monolith and it'll cast a monolithic shadow to be
sure. But the guy who lived behind the Sphinx
was probably pissed off, too.
Things change, skylines change, neighborhoods change, it happens. The potential utility and beauty of The Chauncey is certainly
debatable, the nature of Marc Moen's impact
and influence in Iowa City is debatable, too—
the inadequacy of the city's decision-making
process is not. Hopefully, Iowa City will continue to enjoy development opportunities like
the one at College and Gilbert, but the City
Council must justify their future decisions
with greater transparency and a greater concern for public opinion.
Skaaren Cossé is an undergraduate at the
University of Iowa studying Finance and
International Studies.
Photo by Adrianna Behning
There are, of course, plenty of plausible explanations for the council's decision—they may have
simply chosen the "hot hand" on the development
scene, they may have been awestruck by the idea
of building a big-ass building, they may have seen
The Chauncey as the project with the highest potential return on investment—but who knows?
all TIF agreements. In fact, The Chauncey will
be a major new source of tax revenue for the city.
The idea behind TIF investment is to massively
increase property values and, thus, the amount of
property taxes paid. The completed project is expected to increase property tax revenue by over
$1.3 million a year.
Zach Tilly is an undergraduate studying Journalism and Political Science. He
also writes for The Daily Iowan and the
Washington Post's swing-state blog, The 12.
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Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
7
American Reason
A
The
Vikram Patel & Matt Sowada
www.LittleVillageMag.com
Legal Limit
couple of weeks ago, had the of people that they are going to pay them a
House not kicked the fiscal can just certain amount based on the congressional
a little bit further down the road to budget; however, they are also telling the
May, the country would have once president not to pay those same people by not
again been embroiled in an artificially cre- raising the amount the Treasury can borrow.
ated crisis over the debt ceiling. The House This contradiction along with the seemingly
Republican caucus is demanding that any in- endless power of signing statements are what
crease to the debt limit be
tied to accompanying deficit
reduction plans. Some (such
as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman) have
called this strategy a sort of
economic “Hostage Taking.”
Fundamentally, the question
is whether or not such potentially dangerous means are
an appropriate tool to bring
about an admittedly admirable end: a more responsible
budget policy for the nation. YES, We I CAN
Pres. Obama at the Feb. 12
State of the Union Address.
Matt Sowada: The president appears to have decided
that the answer to this question is a resounding “no.”
President Obama has repeatedly insisted that
he will not negotiate with Republicans over
the debt limit. Congress has the power to raise
the debt ceiling as well as the responsibility to
approve spending. If they insist on planting their feet on
one if the president refuses to
negotiate on the other, how
can he stop them?
He could try to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling. It
would be provocative and
controversial, but Obama
could simply announce that
he also has the power to raise
the debt limit and pronounce it elevated. What
do you think, Vik? Does the president have the
power? Should he try to take it?
most likely give the president the ability to
raise the debt ceiling.
All that being said, I don’t think the president should unilaterally raise the debt ceiling.
to borrow money. It seems that we just have to
live with the temporary consequences of electing irresponsible representation and do better
next time. Do you see any other way out?
M.S.: No, I don’t, which is why I think that if it
ever looks like House Republicans are actually
going to go through with any
of their threats, Obama should
just try to seize the power to
raise the debt ceiling. I acknowledge that it would further expand the power of the
executive branch, but we’ve
already gone so far down that
road that we may as well let
it benefit us once in awhile.
Presidential overreach is a real
problem and it needs to be addressed, but at the same time
people like us who would like
to see a return to a more balanced and stable government
ought to pick their battles. I
can’t think of a scenario where
this or any other president
would be able to abuse the power to raise the
debt ceiling (as long as Congress also retains the
power), can you? If the answer is no, maybe we
should let this one go.
V.P.: You are right that the
president would not be able
to abuse the power to raise
the debt ceiling, especially
because Congress still has
to authorize spending. The
growth in executive power
is not just a result of presidential overreach but also
Congress gradually ceding
power for the sake of short-term political expedience. We’ve seen it with the declaration of
war, regulation of industries, immigration and
other powers all so that members of Congress
can avoid voting on issues that might alienate
campaign funders or certain vocal constituencies. This has allowed irresponsible representatives to hide just how bad of a job they
are doing. In general, the voting public knows
Congress is not functioning well but they are
unsure as to why. If Congress fails to raise the
debt ceiling then it may result in a failure that
is so high profile and transparent that we will
The growth in executive power is not just
a result of presidential overreach but also
Congress gradually ceding power for the
sake of short-term political expedience.
Vikram Patel: According to recent precedent,
the president probably does have the ability
to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling. The executive branch decides how to enforce legislation, which means the president effectively
has more power in legally unclear situations.
We have arrived at the debt-ceiling crisis
because Congress has promised a number
8 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
Over the past century we have seen the presidency grow ever more powerful to the point
where it has been able to (at times) completely
ignore the will of Congress. The president unilaterally raising the debt ceiling would mark
an impingement into one of Congress’ most
cherished powers: the power of the purse.
Unfortunately for us, negotiating with
Congress isn’t an option either. Along the lines
of the “hostage” theme that you raised, if the
president were to give in to Congressional demands for spending cuts then we would end up
in this situation any time the Treasury needed
see different voting behavior in the next election. If the president steps in, then members
of Congress would once again have cover
for their irresponsibility. It would also set the
precedent that Congress can give up power
over finances for short-term political gain.
Failure to raise the debt ceiling would result in a drop in our credit rating. It would
mean that Social Security payments and tax
refunds would be delayed by a few months. It
may even push the US back into a recession.
Hopefully though, it would result in changes
in long term voting behavior. Besides, if
Congress raises the debt ceiling by itself then
that would be a sign that they are already behaving more responsibly without intervention
by voters.
S
GILBERT ST
DUBUQUE ST
PRESIDENTIAL POWERS
OUTH
Linn
In general, the voting
public knows Congress
is not functioning well
but they are unsure as
to why.
M.S.: Wow, so you’d be willing to let the
country actually default in an attempt to trigger a change in voting behavior. I think that
strategy might be counter-productive. What is
the change in voting behavior that we’re looking for? With campaign finance laws the way
they are, the answer for me is for people to feel
social pressure to vote in primaries rather than
huge behemoth national elections so we can
get some folks running for office that would,
as you put it, “behave responsibly.” Now, allowing the country to default would get some
number of people to the primaries, but it would
get them there in a heightened emotional state.
I certainly don’t make the greatest choices
when I’m in that state, do you? I want stable,
reasonable people selecting the people who
might govern us, and I think default will not
deliver that electorate to us. All three branches
of government should do everything legally
possible to prevent it.
Vikram Patel and Matt Sowada are the friendly
adversaries behind the twice-weekly ethical debates series, American Reason. Listen on KRUI
every Sunday from 4-5 p.m., and find an archive
of the shows (as well as exclusive web-only
content) online at LittleVillageMag.com.
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Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
9
The Hops
CASEY WAGNER
I
old capitol mall
n December, I drank my last bottle of
2009 Anchor Christmas Ale.
That’s right: I drank a three-yearold beer—ceremoniously, too. I poured
the ruby-brown brew into a gold-rimmed
Christmas Ale pint glass that I reserve for
drinking Anchor’s iconic holiday seasonal. I
took notes and compared them to what I had
written the first time I tried the beer years before. Why all the fuss? Because I am nerdy
like that. And because my bottle of 2009 was
the first beer that I ever aged.
Contrary to what many believe, beer can be
aged much like wine. When aged properly, a
beer’s aroma and flavor profile will evolve as
characteristics fade, emerge or change. Aging
is far from an exact science, though, and good
intentions can inadvertently transform a beer
into something undrinkable. Despite that risk,
beer enthusiasts everywhere are storing bottles
in basements, cellars and crawl spaces for special occasions or sheer experimentation.
“Everyone’s heard of a wine cellar. Not
everyone’s heard of a beer cellar,” said Joe
Hotek, the beer manager at John’s Grocery,
who himself has a cache of aging beers. “It’s
fun to see what the beer does when left to do
its own thing.”
Though even beer aging veterans can turn
prized vintages into flat, cardboard-flavored
sludge, there are a number of good guidelines that
everyone attempting to age beer should follow.
10 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
www.LittleVillageMag.com
What To Age
Because not all beers can be aged, Hotek
said it is vital to know which are worthy of
cellaring.
Far from ideal are lagers, which taste best
before they even leave the brewery and have
a six-month shelf life at most. IPAs, Double
IPAs and any kind of hop-driven ales are best
consumed fresh because the “hop-bombast”
without active yeast that have an ABV of 8
percent or higher can also be aged. Personally,
Hotek said he only ages barley wine, imperial
stout and Belgian sour. Most Belgian styles
(including dubbel, tripel, quadrubel and lambic) can also be aged, he said.
There are a couple of outliers, too. According
to Joshua M. Bernstein’s book, Brewed
Awakening, beers brewed with wild yeast,
such as saison, can be aged but are often unPhotos by Jay Geisen
Worth the wait
Bottles age in a darkened
corner of the beer cellar at
John's Grocery
will vanish quickly and the beer will eventually become a “big sweet mess,” said Hotek.
Beers perfect for aging have a higher alcohol content (7 percent ABV and above) and are
malt-driven. Bottle-conditioned beers, which
contain live-cultured yeast, are best, but beers
suitable. There are also one-time, seasonal releases—some of which, including my Anchor
Christmas Ale, defy the high-ABV guideline.
Amazingly, a few lucky souls out there are
opening Christmas Ale vintages from the mid‘80s that are incredibly tasty and complex.
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Dining Review
BEER CELLAR
Cellar-worthy beers available locally include:
Bell’s Expedition Stout, Bell’s Third Coast
Old Ale, the varieties of Chimay, Old Rasputin
Russian Imperial Stout, Peace Tree Imperial
Stout, Millstream’s Weizenbock and Old
Smokehouse Barley Wine, most of the lowerABV Unibroue products, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
Barleywine, Orval and Goose Island Matilda.
Where and How to Age
Heat and light are beer’s mortal enemies, so
beer should be aged in a dedicated spot that is
both cool and dark. A cellar or basement storage area will work well. Hotek said he uses a
converted root cellar, which he cleaned and insulated. In apartments, the floor of a centrally
located closet will suffice, though Hotek said
the bottles should be wrapped in paper bags.
Ideally, the temperature needs to remain relatively cool. At colder temperatures, beer will
change and develop much more slowly. Hotek
recommended 40-50ºF, and Randy Mosher
recommends 55-65ºF in his book, Tasting
Beer. The warmer the temperature, the faster
the beer will develop, especially varieties with
live-cultured yeast. Warmer temperatures also
hasten spoilage, though, so do not keep beer
too warm.
Humidity should also be considered. A storage area should not be too damp because mold
can enter a bottle through a cork or loose cap
and ruin the heavenly nectar inside. A springand-autumn-like humidity range of 50-70 percent is recommended in Brewed Awakening.
When in doubt, use a fridge. Bottles can be
placed in the back of a fridge for short-term aging, Hotek said. I kept my bottle of Christmas
Ale 2009 in the fridge for three years and it
aged very well. Beer kept in a fridge, though,
will not develop or change as much because
of the colder temperatures. Avoid transferring
beer from a fridge to a warmer storage area.
Once a beer is cold, it should stay cold.
Beer bottles can either be stored upright or
on their sides. Bernstein's sources, though,
recommend storing them upright so any sedimentation will settle to the bottom. If stored
sideways, sedimentation will settle along the
side and easily kick up during a pour.
How Long to Age
It varies depending on the style and storing
conditions, and any aging already done by the
brewery should be factored into one’s own aging. Based on his experience, Hotek said the
“sweet spot” for barley wine and
L
ocated across the street from Horace Mann
School and conjoined with our friendly local Ace
Hardware store, Nodo is one of the odder and
more overlooked sandwich spots in Iowa City.
Walking in the door, you will likely be met by the proprietor, Bryan Asklof, who will either be working diligently on
an order or standing, arms crossed, in rapt attention to the latest international soccer game (which he will be happy to fill
you in on.) Asklof is excellent at engaging in succinctly clipped
surface-level banter, but if the place is packed and he can’t chat,
you can occupy yourself with Nodo’s steady supply of local
newspapers, peruse their newest batch of local artwork, or peep in the open kitchen as Asklof’s diligent crew cooks your order like good-natured worker bees. Bear in mind, though, your downtime will
be fairly limited. Nodo is, above all, an incredibly efficient sandwich joint and the experience of ordering, waiting and leaving always feels a little like a perfect taxi ride: It’s quick and well worth the cost.
With regards to the food, every sandwich is good (especially the Nodo Burger) and extremely
affordable ($4-8.) For my money, though, the Blue-Ribbon-Best-in-Show-Grand-Puba-LifetimeAchievement Award has to go to Nodo’s egg sandwich. Coming it at $4, you would think this
sammie would be a stripped down McMuffin knock-off, but it’s actually (and please forgive the
histrionics) the best cluckin’ egg sandwich you will ever eat: The egg is perfectly cooked and
sandwiched between two warmed slices of Ciabatta bread with either well-done bacon or tomato
and some sort of magical aioli
that ties this sandwich into an
early morning knock-out sensation. Ah! So good.
Alright—love fest aside—
there are particular aspects of Nodo that do detract from its overall greatness. For starters the decor is
... odd. Go in and decide for yourself, but every time I walk in the door I feel like I’ve stepped onto
the set of a low-budget, poorly lit Terry Gilliam film. Seating is limited and doesn’t really encourage
hanging out or prolonged conversations over a meal; also, you can expect to show up from time to
time and be waiting outside the door until the three or four patrons inside have placed their orders and
left, all of which add up to minor, but not unusual, dining frustrations.
On that point, though—it’s a dining truth that every eatery has to be negotiated by the patron
in a particular manner in order for that eatery to be enjoyed to its fullest. This fact seems especially true in the case of Nodo, one of Iowa City’s finest, strangest and lesser known bistros. If you’re
looking for maximum satisfaction, my advice is to plug Nodo’s number into your phone (319512-5028) and place an order the next time you are either trying to pick between Jimmy Johns
and Milios, or between cooking your
own sub-par egg-sammie and driving
five minutes for the deal of a lifetime.
Granted, the place may suffer in
décor but from this little chicken’s
perspective, if you’re in the mood for
quality sandwiches made quick and
cheap, there’s no better bang for your
cluck than Nodo.
Submit Reviews:
ChickenLittle@LittleVillageMag.com
THE HOPS >> cont. on page 12
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
11
BEER CELLAR
THE HOPS >> cont. from page 11
imperial stout is one to two years. Quads, he
said, are about the same, though he thinks most
Belgians can be aged anywhere from three to
five years. Some lambics have a 20-year shelf
life, but Hotek does not recommend aging any
beer longer than five years. Personally, he does
not age most American craft beer longer than
two years because the beers may oxidize if not
capped properly.
LET 'em Chill
The refrigerator can be an
ideal place for aging beer.
Hotek recommends buying multiple bottles
or a six-pack when aging. One bottle can be
consumed fresh to provide a benchmark and
the others can be opened at regular intervals
(every six months or so). Beers that age well,
Hotek said, will taste like they are supposed
to. Those that have passed their prime will be
stale and taste like cardboard.
For the most part, aging is a lot about experimentation and personal experience.
“Be patient, but not too patient,” said
Hotek, who admitted to aging beers too long
and dumping them down the drain. “It really
is a guessing game.”
It is a fun game, though, with potentially
tasty results.
Casey Wagner lives in Iowa City.
12 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
ednesdays
W
d
r
o
W
Spoken
MEGAN O'BRIEN
www.LittleVillageMag.com
A
lthough this particular diagnosis
cannot be found in medical textbooks, the syndrome's effects are
very real. My former accompanist and vocal coach, Marcelina Turcano, first
coined this phrase during a vocal competition
where five sopranos, including myself, were
giggling, screaming and yammering at a mile
a minute: “You are just being an ass,” she said,
“You have after singing syndrome.”
Through years of vocal discipline I have
continued to observe the effects that Marcelina
so succinctly described. The designation
“After Singing Syndrome” (A.S.S.) has stuck,
and I continue to use it to explain the intoxicating high that comes from singing.
Initiation of A.S.S. is simple. Okay, not exactly. Before a single note is sung, simultaneously lower the larynx (Adam’s Apple), widen
the pharynx (throat space) and raise the soft
palate (the fleshy area on the top, back area
of the mouth). Then, as singing begins—
with perfect diction, of course—toss in an
expert blend of dynamics, artistry, emotions
and acting. Evoke the spirit of a song like a
Shakespearian Al Pacino.
Sound easy? Great, you are ready for your
debut performance at the Metropolitan Opera
House. If not, have no fear: With or without these skills, every level of singer—even
you—can experience the effects of A.S.S.
The remarkable act of vocal performance,
whether you are a beginner or an expert,
causes neurons to fire from every region in the
mind. Each lobe of the brain will be in complete synchronicity, pulling personality, emotion, language, memory, visual stimuli and
auditory signals together like a finely tuned
instrument. A.S.S. is triggered by this accelerated brain mobility. For some reason, though,
the primal part of your brain that controls involuntary bodily functions appears to slack off
during this vital time, so please, don’t forget
to breathe.
A.S.S. can be an integral part of the development of a vocal performer, playing a large
role in bolstering spunk and tenacity in the
early stages of singing. Despite being early
in their training, the exhilarating side effects
increase fearlessness and add a little bit of
chutzpah, helping young students grow surprisingly confident and eager to take on the
high flying arias of the most talented opera
singers, like Luciano Pavarotti.
This added boost of confidence can also ex-
Health
In effect, A.S.S. is the result of incredible
multitasking. Let’s imagine how efficiently
our brain would have to work in order to perform an operatic aria in a different language,
with a beautiful supported tone, keeping one
eye on the conductor and one eye on the
woman you are swooning. The audience must
believe the only way you can evoke your tender yet passionate feelings for the soprano is
with perfect soaring vocal lines that cut past
a 90-piece orchestra and bounce off the ceiling of a 1,500-seat theatre. If the stage director is kind he will let you stand in one spot
while you sing, and move during the musical
interlude, but not every director is so kind.
You may have to walk, dance or even depict
the act of making love. I have even heard of a
director who had a soprano sing upside down
JOYFUL NOISE
The Old Capitol Chorus meets
weekly at the Robert A. Lee
Recreation Center.
Photos by Mara Cole
plain why the infamous label “diva” has been
given to the most self-assured opera singers,
as well as those swagger-ridden pop stars. In
Beyoncé Knowles’ Super Bowl performance
earlier this month, the world-famous diva beamed intense energy that could be felt through the
T.V. screen. You could see her
euphoria building as she sang,
her face glowing as she danced
to “Single Ladies,” laughing at
herself as she simultaneously
rotated both her left AND right
hands to show off her ring finger. By the end of her performance, the
effects of A.S.S. were clearly visible: You
could almost see her heart pounding while she
smiled with elated pride and finished her eyepopping performance.
while nude! (This is not a technique I would
recommend.)
Cassie McNally, a chorus member at the
Minnesota Opera who graduated with me from
the University of Northern Iowa, described
what went through her mind while performing
Roselinda in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus.
She said, “My nerves are channeled into focus, excitement and adrenaline.
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
13
SINGING YOUR A.S.S. OFF
When in front of a crowd, there’s an insane
amount of information that passes through my
mind, although strangely I feel out of body.
My heightened awareness makes it seem as
though I am outside of myself watching my
own performance.” She continues, “Time
seems to stop, and before I know it the performance is over.”
This extreme balancing act that we call
singing, in essence, ignites the brain in such a
way that the social, intellectual, emotional and
spiritual aspects of our lives become more accessible. Don’t believe me? Before you study
for a big test, or make a big speech in the
boardroom, consider learning all the words,
notes and rhythms to Gilbert and Sullivan’s
14 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
“I Am the Very Model of a Modern MajorGeneral.” Once you’ve quickly learned and
memorized all 36 lines, try performing it in
front a loved one and feel the effects on your
mood and energy from your brain’s neurons
firing from all corners. The invigorating endorphin and dopamine rush that I call A.S.S. is
the product of a concentrated mental process
that could be compared to walking across a
tightrope while juggling.
If a spontaneous performance of Gilbert
and Sullivan is out of your comfort zone, try
singing in the car to the radio, and attempt to
memorize all the words to a new song. If you
are feeling more ambitious, learn a song in a
different language, and translate the words in
your head while singing. (The profound capabilities of your brain are mind-blowing!)
Arguably, one of the fastest ways to ignite
your mental processes and create a feeling
of elated confidence is through the power of
song.
Megan O’Brien is an opera singer and voice
instructor who has recently opened a studio
in downtown Iowa City. She received her
Master of Music in Vocal Performance from
UNI, and her equivalent Bachelor’s from the
University of Iowa. More information can be
found at obrienstudios.net.
www.LittleVillageMag.com
DAWN FRARY
Community
O
TO YOUR DOOR
Derek Roller of Echollective
greets the public at Iowa City's
annual CSA Fair.
n a gloomy, rainy day that conjured thoughts of blankets and
hot cups of tea rather than digging in the dirt outside, a group
of farmers assembled in Iowa City to sow the
seeds of knowledge. The Ninth Annual Iowa
City Area Community Supported Agriculture
(CSA) Fair was held on Feb. 10 at the Mercer
Park Aquatic Center and served as the soapbox from which local farmers could spread
the good word about who they are, what they
do and how we can all help each other lead
healthier, more connected lives.
The concept of community-supported agriculture first took root in Japan in the 1960s,
where it was referred to as teikei. Literally
translated, teikei means “partnership” (though
it’s relevant to note that a more philosophical
translation can also mean "food with the farmer's face”). The movement gained popularity
throughout Europe in the 1970s and early ‘80s
and was eventually brought to North America
in 1984 by Jan Vander Tuin, a community organizer and bicycle designer. Since then, the
idea of the CSA has blossomed into an international movement centered around the ideals of
education, good health and community.
The basic premise of a CSA is this: Patrons
become members of a CSA by purchasing a
share of a farm. In return for paid membership, they receive a weekly box of fresh food
straight from their local farmer. The mutual
advantages to this are countless but the most
obvious benefit is, perhaps, reassurance. Not
only does a CSA membership guarantee fresh
vegetables, fruits, eggs, honey and occasionally meat and dairy products to the consumer,
but it also insures that farmers are able to support both the community and themselves.
“CSAs create a stable market for the food that
farmers produce,” said Pete Flynn and Shanti
Sellz, both of Muddy Miss Farms. “For the farmer, this greatly reduces the pressure of having to
sell food and provides the farmer with more time
and energy to devote to growing the food.”
So, with piles of produce readily available at
the local supermarket, why join a CSA? Pam
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
15
Community
DAWN FRARY
Worden of Family Farm CSA puts it bluntly:
“When you join a CSA, you know where your
food is coming from and that it is fresh.” “This
produce didn't ripen while travelling 1,500
miles on a truck,” adds Rebekah Neuendorf of
Bloomin’ Wooley Acres. “It hasn't been handled by countless consumers’ hands in the produce aisle who are sifting through a carefully
stacked pile to find the 'least damaged' tomato
or pepper. This produce is grown with you in
mind!” The freshness factor is huge. “Most of
our vegetables are picked fresh and delivered
the same day we pick them. Consequently,
they taste great and have a longer shelf life,”
said Susan Jutz, owner of ZJ Farm.
Another reason for joining a CSA, the farmers at Muddy Miss say, “You are likely to see
variety in your CSA box that you would be
hard pressed to encounter in a supermarket.”
The idea of dealing with exotic and unfamiliar items can be intimidating. What does
one do with a giant Daikon radish? “View it
as an eating adventure,” advises Jutz. “New
members will be exposed to new varieties of
www.LittleVillageMag.com
vegetables.” Intimidation can eventually give
way to excitement: “Many of my members
have compared the weekly share of vegetables as a ‘present they look forward to each
week,’” Jutz said.
Membership in a CSA can require a substantial upfront cost of anywhere from $250$550, depending on the size of the share. This
can seem like a large financial investment, but
Twyla Hein of Earth Biscuit Farm says otherwise: “It's easier if you break it down and
understand that even though the upfront cost
can be a lot, it comes out to approximately
$15-$20 per week.”
Still not sure if a CSA is the right way to go?
The farmers at Muddy Miss offer this simple,
no-nonsense tip: “[Our] best advice—join!”
Rebekah Neuendorf adds, “Look around to find
a CSA that best suits your lifestyle needs-wants.”
Other reasons to become a CSA memeber:
“When joining a CSA, members get to know
their farmer, learn about sustainable farming
practices and support a small farm rather than a
large chain supermarket,” says Hein.
Fresh food, the peace of mind that comes
from knowing exactly where that bunch of
spinach came from, sitting down to a meal that
was sourced from the same zip code—these
are the invaluable benefits of a CSA membership. While it remains true that farming is still
a business, CSAs offer a way to connect with
local community and local food. Membership
provides sustenance while ensuring that
farmers can continue their work sustainably.
According to the farmers at Muddy Miss,
along with that weekly box of produce comes
“the good feelings of knowing that your money is supporting independent local business,
strengthening a vibrant local food system and
making the work of growing real food a viable
occupation.” In other words, everybody wins.
Dawn Frary is the photo editor of Little
Village Magazine. She likes cats, cameras and
coffee, and also really wants to be a farmer.
Photos taken by Dawn Frary at the 9th Annual CSA Fair, Mercer Park Aquatic Center, Feb. 10, 2013
16 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
CSA BUYING GUIDE
Abbe Hills Farm - Mt. Vernon
www.abbehills.com
20 weeks, June-October
Vegetables; eggs
Grinnell Heritage Farm - Grinnell
www.grinnellheritagefarm.com
Up to 24 weeks, begins in May
Vegetables; fruit; herbs
Bloominâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Wooley Acres - Nashua
www.bwagarden.com
28 weeks, begins in May
Vegetables; fruit; dairy; eggs;
bread; honey
(4) Hue Hill Farm - Iowa City
(319) 339-0624
May-December
Vegetables; herbs
Muddy Miss Farms - Iowa City
www.muddymissfarms.com
20 weeks, May-September
Vegetables; fruit; herbs; flowers;
wild-harvested items
ZJ Farm - Solon
www.zjfarms.com
April-December
Vegetables; eggs; bread; meats; poultry
Partners with Regina Bread for croissants,
brioche, shortbread, biscotti, scones, granola
Earth Biscuit Farm - Tipton
www.earthbiscuitfarm.com
20 weeks, May-October
Vegetables; eggs; baked goods
Matthew 25 Urban Farm - Cedar Rapids
www.hub25.com
20 weeks, June-October
Vegetables; herbs
(1) Echollective CSA - Mechanicsville
echollectivecsa.blogspot.com
3 seasons, May-October
Vegetables; herbs
(3) Oak Hill Acres - Atalissa
www.oakhillacres.com
22 weeks, May-October
Vegetables; grains; hay; honey; flowers
(5) Family Farm CSA - Iowa City
(319) 936-1317
18 weeks, begins in May
Vegetables; fruits; beef
Salt Fork Farms - Solon
www.saltforkfarms.com
May - November
Vegetables; fruit; eggs; poultry
Gooseberry Hill - Iowa City
(319) 354-7260
June-September
Veggies; fruit; eggs
(2) Wild Woods Farm - Solon
facebook.com/veggiefarm
18 weeks, June - September
Vegetables; herbs
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
17
18 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
www.LittleVillageMag.com
WILLIAM BLAIR
Hot Tin Roof
The Pavement Between my Home and the Church
T
he apartment I just moved into is
yellow. My space is full of free
things that open people have given
me. I close the blinds. I can hear cars
from the street. The shadows of people pass by
my window and show under my curtains.
When I wake up in the morning and walk
outside I can see the church where my father,
Joe, sings. I get a call from my dad. He asks
me to come to church.
“I’m dirty,” I say.
“Come anyways.” He says it like he’s dirty too.
“Ok, I’m gonna shower first,” I say. He
hangs up. I knew that he was going to call and
I knew that I was going to go.
I take a shower and get ready. I don’t dress
warm. I walk across the street into the church.
I stay in the doorway and I listen. Pastor Dial
starts with a story and a slow laugh. He says,
“And now it’s time to greet one another.”
The congregation walks in and out of each
other in a mass. I can see Joe in the middle.
He looks good like he’s totally at home. The
community knows me. I walk through people
saying hello until I’m behind Joe. Joe sees
me, and we hug.
Pastor Dial says I’m taller than Joe now
and so does everyone else. I smile and Joe
laughs. I sit down first. Then so does the
crowd. I listen to the choir and it’s the same
as I remember. Joe looks young when he
sings and I want to be next to him. The singing ends, and Joe sits next to me. He stinks
like he said. We skip out early and fall into
the hard seats of Joe's work van.
I don’t remember what the sermon was
about, and neither does he.
We pull up to The Pit, and get the same
food my family always got. “I think the sandwiches are bigger,” Joe says.
“But the fries are smaller,” I say.
We both look at each other. Joe is like a little pillar in the church. I think it’s funny that
we left early. Joe drives me back to the street
in between my apartment and the church. The
car is parked, and I say “My fridge sucks.
Can you come in and look at it?”
“Sure,” Joe says.
We both walk away from the church to my
Apartment. I walk Joe in and I tell him the
place is yellow, that the door is broken too.
He thinks it’s ok. He looks at the fridge and
its fine. Joe is in the doorway and he doesn’t
stay long. We both say goodbye.
It’s the middle of the day and everything is
sitting still. The sun melts the snow like it does
every year. I want it to get cold again one last
time. It’s later now and that might not happen.
My name is William Lowell Blair. I was born
in Iowa. I am an aspiring artist, and working
full time.
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
19
Prairie Pop
CRAIG ELEY
www.LittleVillageMag.com
performers can have both serious pipes as well
as a serious persona. Beyoncé is one of those
people. And did I mention she can dance?
In most music criticism circles, Beyoncé's
inauguration performance was a non-issue;
anyone who has seen pop music performed
live knows that not every sound you hear is
happening on stage, in real-time, by a human
"playing" an "instrument." In a way, the increased access to computer-based production
tools and the widespread aestheticization of
computer-based adjustment techniques (like
Auto-Tune) has made those processes much
more transparent than they ever have been before. And the circumstances surrounding the
inauguration were a singer's nightmare: cold
OWNING IT
Beyoncé's high profile 2013
appearnaces underscore
the value of live performance.
I
n the classic Destiny's Child song "Say
My Name," the protagonist suspects that
her man is cheating on her because his
voice has changed: "Every other word
is 'uh huh,' 'yeah,' 'okay.' Could it be that you
are at the crib with another lady?" The woman, voiced by Beyoncé, demands reassurance
through spoken language. Fully rejecting the
idea that "actions speak louder than words,"
Beyoncé argues for the importance of words
themselves and the voices that speak them.
Who else is there? What is your voice hiding?
And why can't you just say my name?
Over the last month, Beyoncé has found
the roles reversed, with people demanding to
know the secrets behind her voice. After her
performance at President Obama's second inauguration, someone suggested that she probably wasn't singing up there, instead mouthing
along to a pre-recorded track (the dreaded "lip
syncing"). Others suggested that there might
20 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
have been a track playing, but she was also
singing perfectly on top of it. In either case,
the national dialog revealed a deep fear on this
important national moment that "real singing"
might not have taken place. Of course, the
conversation soon shifted to a much bigger
and more significant national event: the Super
Bowl. What would arguably the world's biggest singer do on arguably the world's biggest
stage for arguably the most important 13 minutes of the musical year?
The answer: She sang her fucking heart out.
Like the lovers in "Say My Name," the public's relationship to its pop stars is, for better
or worse, based on being able to trust their
voices. That trust can be established in a lot
of ways, from the pure power and musicality of singers like Jennifer Hudson (who performed "God Bless America" during the Super
Bowl) to the believability of storytellers like
Taylor Swift. In some increasingly rare cases,
temperatures and wind, no time to practice and
soundcheck with your fellow musicians, and a
setting at which you are ornamental at best. So
she recorded it. But in case anyone doubted
that Beyoncé can actually sing the National
Anthem, she strolled out onto the stage at her
Super Bowl press conference and did just that,
no questions asked. And yes, she nailed it.
So with her pipes fully re-established, the
big questions for Super Bowl Sunday were
about the persona and its supporting cast. Her
marriage to and collaborations with Jay-Z
made his presence the topic of some debate,
and the long-rumored Destiny's Child reunion performance also seemed in play. As for
Beyoncé herself, since her 2008 double album
I Am ... Sasha Fierce, she has promoted the
idea that there are at least two aspects of her
personality that compete with each other—one
an introspective R&B singer, and the other an
electronic-era pop star. Musically, this translated on the album to the first half featuring
BEYONCE
more traditional, adult contemporary ballads
like "Halo," and the second half featuring radio and club hits like "Single Ladies (Put a
Ring on It)."
While this split is noticeable on record, her
live performances manage to unite these selfstylized "contradictions" through her presentation of herself as an all-around female badass.
Music critic Sasha Frere-Jones has said that
Beyoncé has "a monopoly on a sort of dignified anger … she really owns this 'wronged
woman who is not in any way pathetic' thing."
And indeed, after an opening pyrotechnic sequence that illuminated two silhouettes facing each other, Beyoncé stood in center stage,
backlit, hands on hips, all legs and hair and
attitude. She put the mic to her lips and sang
the chorus to "Love on Top" a cappella.
Then the music kicked in, and immediately
established two important points. The first is
that backing tracks were certainly being used,
in addition to the full band, because that was
Jay-Z's voice out there and he was nowhere to
be seen. The second point was that Jay-Z was
nowhere to be seen. If there was ever a time for
a man to walk on stage and give a shout-out to
his wife, this was it, and it wasn't happening.
It wasn't because Beyoncé was unwilling to
share the stage—at one point she brought her
guitar player out front for a solo, and Kelly
Rowland and Michelle Williams came out
to do "Independent Women Part I" and parts
of "Single Ladies." But all of those women
were just that: women. From the band, to the
legions of dancers, to the singers themselves,
everyone on stage that night was female.
During the closing number, "Halo," the silhouetted faces that framed the stage grew hair.
Thanks to a fabric element that emerged from
each side, the faces now had long, flowing hair,
transforming their previously gender-neutral
appearance into a decidedly female-centric
one. Lots has been written about whether or
not Beyoncé is a "feminist," but wherever you
lie in that debate it seems hard to ignore that
this attitude and imagery, at the center of the
most masculinist sporting event in the world,
was and is a statement.
In a note to her fellow performers after
the show, including Hudson, Roland and
Williams, Beyoncé opened with an appropriate degree of capital letters and exclamation
points: "What a proud day for AFRICAN
AMERICAN WOMEN!!!!" Indeed, but also
a proud day for all of us—women and men—
who witnessed it.
EAT. SHOP. IOWA CITY’S
ENJOY. NEIGHBORHOOD
MARKETPLACE.
Craig Eley is a graduate student at The
University of Iowa, currently residing in
Austin, TX
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
21
Pro Tips
Wayne diamante
F
or over six months, Wayne Diamante has been the name you trust when it comes to
money matters; tampon advice; which brand of hip replacement is best; dealing with
the neighbor’s cat problem; measuring the distance between hello and second base and
countless other bits of human drama and plan-B scenarios. He’s the trusted vizier you
turn to when everyone else has stopped listening about your rash. He’s on your side when you’ve
exhausted conventional means of hair replacement. Remember when there was only one set of
footprints in the sand? Yes, that was Wayne carrying you piggyback style, but facing forward.
Because Wayne is who you count on when maintaining eye contact counts. Whether you need
advice about turning over a new leaf, or turning your life around, Wayne listens and understands
for the most part. If you have a tough question you’d like addressed, please send it to askwaynediamante@gmail.com and I’ll do my best to figure out what your problem is.
Dear Wayne,
Is there an appreciable difference between
the fur covering the majority of a cat, versus
the fur around that cat’s privates? And if not,
does that mean cats are entirely covered in pubes?
Dear Wayne,
Look, I’m in the sales industry and in my
profession I have to look sharp and smell
good. Do you have any advice for an “all day
long” power user like me about maintaining
my fresh edge?
Sincerely,
Tina N.
Thanks,
Jamie
Dear Tina N.,
Yes. Technically no. I think you have to
have hair follicles rather than fur to have pubes. But yes. The answer is yes.
Jamie,
Whenever I have questions about hygiene
I consult the internet. Let me Google that for
you. Ahhh … here we are. Success. According
to wikihow.com you should:
—Wayne
“Change your underpants often. Always
change into clean underwear after a shower.
If you're smelling not so good "down there,"
then change your underwear at lunch or after
you get home from school or work.”
Or
“Excuse yourself and go to the nearest bathroom to freshen up. Go alone so that you can
attend to your body without drawing a lot of
attention.”
And of course, when you take that pre newunderwear shower you’ll want to
“Scrub your anus. If you have any fecal residue
around your anus, it can make you smell bad.”
I think you’ve got some real building blocks
here. What you build with them, Jamie, is up
to you. Namaste.
22
—Wayne
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
A.C. Hawley
www.LittleVillageMag.com
The Tube
• Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski)
A picture-perfect narcissist and international pop
star, Jenna's self-involvement frequently came to
the fore, especially when she married her husband,
a professional Jenna Maroney impersonator.
• Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan)
Former star of Who Dat Ninja and Fat Bitch,
Jordan was a literal walking quote machine whose
every statement was out of left field, if it made
sense at all. Best Quote: “Your ‘boos’ are not scaring me! I know most of you are not ghosts!”
• “Muffin Top”
Jenna's dance track, which hit number four
on the charts in Belgium and number one in
Israel, is about how awesome and attractive
her belly paunch is when she is dancing.
2
006 saw the debut of two series that
built their plots around the behindthe-scenes action of shows with disturbing similarities to Saturday Night
Live. The first was Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60
on the Sunset Strip. Following the success of
Sorkin’s The West Wing, and with a cast that
included Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet and
D.L. Hughley, this show looked like a sure bet.
The second show was 30 Rock.
Created by former SNL head writer Tina
Fey, 30 Rock looked like a less-inspired copy
of Studio 60, and, among other problems, it
Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) are two of the best
television characters in recent memory.
Lemon is a grown woman who runs a television show, yet wears a bathing suit to work when
she is out of underwear. She wants to be loved,
but has incredibly bad taste in men, as evidenced
by her involvement with Dennis Duffy (Dean
Winters), the Beeper King of New York, Wesley
Snipes (Michael Sheen)—not the one from
Passenger 57—and Dr. Drew Baird (Jon Hamm),
a man who ends up with hooks for hands.
Donaghy, Lemon's boss, drinks scotch all
day and puts on a tuxedo after five because he
had Tracy Morgan as one of its leads. While I
knew little about either, I assumed that Studio
60 would be a larger success.
By week four of the fall television schedule,
it was clear that Studio 60 was terrible. Boring,
preachy and mystically unfunny, Sorkin's show
was more a slog than a joy—something that can
also be said for his current project The Newsroom.
While it wasn't much better at the time, 30
Rock did show promise in its first season. If
nothing else, it was funny. Seven years later,
America is saying goodbye to an award-winning sitcom with absurdly funny jokes, excellent characters and stunt castings out the ass.
Although 30 Rock was not as popular as past
NBC sitcoms like Cheers, Frasier, Wings and
Seinfeld, history will look kindly upon this
crew of misfits for a myriad reasons. Along
with its heavy use of meta commentary, astonishingly fast dialogue and timeless pop-cultural
references, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and Jack
isn't a farmer. He's staunchly Republican and
one of the four people in history to have not
made an error in judgment during a day—the
other three are Jack Welch, Lee Iacocca and
Saddam Hussein (no judgment). Donaghy
serves as a mentor to Lemon, and the two
of them have a touching relationship that the
show plays up well towards the end.
The legacy of 30 Rock will be in its absurdity. The setups for jokes on this show came
from all angles and usually hinged on some
rather unhinged principles. Here are just a few
of the many jokes and people that made the
show insane yet special over the years.
• Dr. Leo Spacemen (Chris Parnell)
-Pronounced “spa-che-man” (emphasis on the
‘che’) not space-man, Dr. Leo Spaceman was
the doctor to the stars. The son of a Nazi doctor,
Spaceman trained at the Ho Chi Minh School of
Medicine and practiced while heavily medicated.
• “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah”
Tracy Jordan's Halloween novelty song. While
the premise is ridiculous to put it mildly, it
delivers one of the greatest choruses in recent
memory: “werewolf bar mitzvah, spooky, scary
/ boys becoming men / men becoming wolves.”
• 1-900-Okface
A Chicago-based phone sex line that hired Liz
for one of her only acting jobs. The acting and
film quality here are almost as atrocious as the
lipstick on Liz's teeth. A mood killer if ever
there was one.
• “The Rural Juror”
An adaptation of the popular Kevin Grisham
book, Jenna plays the main character
Constance Justice. The best sequences include
Rachel Dratch as Barbara Walters saying ‘rural juror’ and Jenna singing the closing number from “The Rural Juror” musical.
Rather quietly, 30 Rock has delivered
the first great American sitcom of the 21st
Century. Thinking back, it is clear what made
this show special: These characters, as weird
as they were, became a part of the viewer's
life. We watched them to see what ridiculous
situations they might find themselves in. Now
the people who love 30 Rock must acknowledge they’ve formed an unhealthy bond to a
bunch of imaginary television characters and
grudgingly say goodbye.
A.C. Hawley's absolute favorite quote from 30
Rock is from Jenna: “You know, a great place
to meet vulnerable women is Weight Watchers.
I did Watchers to stay pageant fit, but it was
too much math for a six year old. Thank God I
found cigarettes.”
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
23
ARTicle
RUSSELL JAFFE
U
sually I, your humble poet narrator, write about art. But I recently
stepped out from behind my newspaper fortress and ran my own art
show that featured painted electronics—like
video game systems and old TVs—that I got
at Sharpless auctions. The show ran for a week
at PSZ gallery (120 N. Dubuque), and after the
show ended I sold everything using an auctioneer (also from Sharpless) for really cheap.
Here is what I learned:
Sweat the details
If you’re hanging art, measure. Measure for
the eyes and head like every set of eyes is an
enemy sniper. Save your troops. If you have
sculptures or objects, pedestals are a must.
Meticulous details—like how many brown M
& M’s go in the dish, and even more realistically what kind of snacks you use at all and
if people besides yourself like seltzer (spoiler
alert: they do)—must be paid attention to.
Things need to be presented in optimal viewing
ways; even if those ways make no sense, they
have to be considered. My friend Alex ended
up in the back of my hatchback with the trunk
open holding onto a couple of oversized pedestals for dear life while I drove slowly from PS1
to PSZ. I guess that also means that your friends
should be strong of musculature and be willing
to get pulled over or die for your local art show.
Consider your audience
Who are your audience members? Are they
wealthy art benefactors? Are they families seeking an interesting night of images? Are they
grad school kids with no room for clunky, boxy
sculptures? What do you want to present to these
interesting faces in the omnicolor void? Think
about who might come through your show and
what they might get out of it, even if what they
get out of it is a coffee shop conversation and not
24 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
www.LittleVillageMag.com
BREAKING: PS1 LEASE TERMINATION?
Have you wanted to book a concert, reading, or performance, or just enjoy the art on the
gallery walls of Iowa City’s legendary Public Space One? Have you participated in any of
their free art school events or all-ages art happenings around town?
Well, if you love PS1 and want to be a part of its powerful public presence, you’ll have to act
fast because all signs point to their lease in the basement of the Jefferson Building—a lease
donated to them by the University—not being renewed.
This means that effective July 1, Public Space One in its current form might no longer exist.
While PS1 printmaking space PSZ (and the pulse of art across Iowa City in all its forms) is far
from going anywhere, consider the coming months an opportunity to enjoy one of Iowa
City’s most unique spaces. Much, much more information to come, and if you want to take
action in the meantime, letters of support (i.e. letters explaining PS1's value to you and your
community) are being collected. Send your letter to Support@PublicSpaceOne.com.
a piece. Do you really like looking at things? An
art show may be for you. The less you expect to
“gain” from an art show, the more you will.
Art is not a career. It is a
way to live on earth
Nobody is an artist for their job; they are
an artist because that’s their way of living in
the world. That’s how they speak to you and
to themselves. You can teach form, function and design, but you cannot teach meaning. You cannot teach what it means to look
at something and have that resonate with the
consciousness or unconscious. Figuratively
speaking, you can only build (painted or unpainted) doors and it is up to the audience to
open them, smash through them or walk past
them without asking anything.
Painting is always going
to take longer than you
think
I was given total free reign to paint whatever I
wanted in PSZ, so I ended up painting inky blots
across the walls in black where white poetry was
afterwards splattered and scrawled. The show
itself was so janky, so dedicated to tossed out
material goods and entertainment media that I
felt like the sloppy job fit really well. And yet my
request to paint the doors was rightfully denied,
because painting doors requires an additional ridiculous amount of work, especially REpainting
them, and especially ESPECIALLY when they
are made of starkly different material than the
gallery walls. Painting gallery doors is not unlike suturing carpeting to a horse’s back instead
of just using a saddle. Get rollers. Get brushes.
Get albums you like—but NOTHING that will
drive you murderously insane. And get bottles of
water. Paint that drips off you and your brushes
into your glass can provide a lot of beautiful, unfolding metaphors, but it’s super unsafe to drink.
Paint is expensive
If you can get free paint, use it. In fact,
the more supplies you can find used, the better. They can serve purpose after purpose if
cleaned and decently maintained. The way
your art stands out against the walls of a gallery is a critical notion and you can’t let it be
the blank space on your radar that ends up being an asteroid the radar isn’t programmed to
see. That’s how shit gets extinct.
ADVICE PAGES
places to hang shit, to notice some
drunk passed out in the corner
and usher him from the gallery.
Filtering reality through one’s
art-lens of perception can make
you long for quality company
you might otherwise have driven
away.. Have an important friend
who can listen to you bitch and
complain for many, many hours,
despite the fact that you’re at a
privileged enough place in your
life to love amazing people and
have a nice apartment and food
every day, night and dead of night.
“Support local art”
means a tremendous deal more to
me now
Drugs and alcohol simultaneously and equally help
and do not help
In fact, in the case of alcohol in particular,
that substance can be used to blur and crease
the ever-diminishing lines between night and
day, sleep and waking life. Night becomes day
as you plan or send out Facebook invites or design fliers or think about where certain things
will go or who—if anyone—will show up. Day
becomes night as you struggle with your own
soul-bludgeoning Facebook presence and bullheaded drive to self promote like you imagine
maybe a lot of artists feel like they have to do if
they want people going to their shows.
Being single simultaneously and equally helps and
does not help
So have a friend (multiple friends helps) to
help set up your show, to add vision, to suggest
Thanks to gallery space director John Engelbrecht and hard working volunteers through The James Gang’s nexus—
especially space procuring superstar Becky
Dewing—I was able to get a beautiful small
gallery handed to me for nothing but good intentions and believing in someone passionate
about a show. Hell-Ø-Scapes was a lot of fun.
I had wacky Doritos and candy and seltzer.
In the end it became about my friends, past,
present and future. If you’re an artist or something in the primordial ooze like it, contact
local spaces—business or otherwise—where
you see art hanging or gaping holes where art
might someday blossom, and consider setting
something up. Think about intention. To make
money? To have a good time? To drink coffee
a lot? If your art show was a good time, you
won at doing an art show.
Russell Jaffe is the editor of Strange Cage.
ATLANTA • CHICAGO O’HARE • DALLAS-FT. WORTH • DENVER
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airfares and packages. Visit qcairport.com
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
25
Talking Movies
KIT BRYANT
M
aybe your Valentine’s Day attempts to court that hottie with
a pulse weren’t such a success.
So what? Hop back on that
horse. The horse of studious preparation, that
is. If I’ve learned anything from movies it’s that
everybody wants the same brand of magical
happily-ever-after love: domestic, heterosexual, monogamous, procreating, eternal love. Yes,
www.LittleVillageMag.com
1. Who to Woo
You can’t just pitch your woo at any ol’ ragamuffin on the street. You have to select your
quarry with serial-killer meticulousness and
according to a stringent set of predetermined
qualifications. Luckily for you, I’ve sorted all
the people in the world into two simple categories, “Those Deserving of Romance” and
“Those Undeserving of Romance,” so that
You can’t just pitch your woo at any ol’ ragamuffin
on the street. You have to select your quarry with
serial-killer meticulousness and according to a
stringent set of predetermined qualifications.
everybody … even you! Especially you. As
someone who has seen every movie ever and
has witnessed all of the romantic relationships
therewithin, it is my duty to impart unto you
my mighty geisha-like knowledge of that sloppy, gushy, squishy thing we call love. Here’s
a handy dandy guide to doing it “Hollywood
style” and getting your happy ending.
you don’t have to do any of the work to find
that special someone to whom you can attach
yourself like a barnacle for the rest of your
life. You’re welcome.
Those Deserving of Romance:
Prostitutes with Hearts of Gold, Nutty Professors,
Handsome Single Dads with Sports Jobs,
Undercover FBI Agents Infiltrating Beauty
Pageants, Guys Who Used to Be Womanizers
But Learn Their Lessons When They Meet the
Right Girl, Frazzled Young Professional Women
with Moxie, Costumed Vigilantes, Sensitive Beta
Males, Attractive Doctors, Women Who Are
Perfect Except for One Endearing Token Quirk
Such as Clumsiness or The Ability to Eat a Lot
of Food, The Handsome Guy Who Objects While
You’re at the Altar, Teens.
Those Undeserving of Romance:
Prostitutes with Hearts of Meat, Storm
Troopers, Trolls, Whimsical Talking Animal
Companions, Quirky Chocolate Factory
Owners, The Senile, The Pudgy or Ethnic Guy
or Gal Who’s Just There to Clown Around for
a Few Laughs, Rich Jerk Fiancées, Chainsaw
Murderers, Annoying Little Kids, People
with Comically Poor English Skills, People
with Abnormal Body Dimensions, FortuneTellers, Danny DeVito, Whatever the Plural
of “Sensei” Is, Mad Scientists, Butlers,
Bullies, Bums, Kooky Old Inventors, Bit
Extras Without Names.
DELICIOUS LOCATIONS!
DOWNTOWN
136 S. Dubuque St.
319-351-9400
Dine In or Carry Out
www.thewedgepizza.com
LARGE 14”
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Valid at both locations. Carry out or delivery available
to a limited campus delivery area. Expires 3/31/13
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519 S. Riverside Dr.
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Delivery or Carry Out
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add to any order
local checks accepted. 50¢
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26 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
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Don’t forget: a billion movies can’t be
wrong!
2. How to Woo
There’s always the Say Anything speakersover-the-head move, and of course, there’s ruining her wedding at the last second, but if you
really want surefire results, save the world.
Works every single time, I swear to God.
If saving the world doesn’t work, turn to the
mad sciences: robotics, potions, re-animation
of sewn together corpse parts, etc.
3. So You’ve Wooed
Middle of Nowhere
Ava DuVernay (2012)
Bijou, Feb 22-28
Sometimes you meet your Mr. Right, get
happily married and then he goes to jail.
Is he dead? No. Are you divorced? No.
Then where is he? He’s in jail. This movie
is about a lady going through that exact
situation. In other words: a female perspective on a problem disproportionately affecting this country’s black and
Latino populations.
Tchoupitoulas
Bill Ross (2012)
Bijou, Feb 22-28
True or False: film is a form of art. If
you answered “True,” you may enjoy
this piece of filmic art which offers a
lush patchwork of impressions of New
Orleans as formed through the disparate experiential observations of three
young boys. If you answered “False,”
you probably will want to go watch
something with a plot.
Now what?...?!?
»»
Beginnings
If in the beginning your relationship flies by in
a montage of happy milestones, watch out: You
are about to be shipped off to war, move into a
spooky house where you find out later there had
been some gruesome slayings or that your wife
or daughter has just been taken hostage and you
are about to have to fight off some terrorist mastermind’s thugs. At least you can visit your happy
times together periodically through flashbacks.
If the relationship begins with you going to a secluded cabin to enjoy underage drinking and the
bodies of other sexy teens, you are about to be
gruesomely slain. Sorry ‘bout it.
If your relationship begins with you hating
the other person’s guts because you are both
sexy assassins who have been contracted to
kill each other, or he or she is your bounty
hunter trying to capture and incarcerate you,
or because you found out after your makeover that you were the subject of some
sort of cruel bet, you are in luck! This is a
recipe for a lasting relationship that will
Middles
Remember: it’s not that you did that horrible thing you did. It’s that you lied about it.
But don’t worry because this isn’t the end; it’s
just the act break leading into Act III. You’ll be
back together in about a half hour.
Are you in a strained marriage? Want to
know how it will turn out? If you are a good
and attractive person doing everything you can
to make things “work,” but you’re taken for
granted by a lazy or career-oriented jerk, your
marriage is going to fail. You will meet someone soon who will show you what a bastard
your current spouse is and you will come to
realize this new person is the right one for you.
However, if you are the jerk, your marriage is
going to be fine. You are about to embark on a
zany series of events, like a time-travel adventure or something, that will make you realize
the error of your ways and magically turn you
into a good spouse. Okay, husband.
Freaking out about parenthood? You’re
in for some comedic mishaps while you try
to figure out the ins and outs of pregnancy.
Then will come a time when you’re either
screaming obscenities at your husband for
cursing you with the pain of childbirth, or
your hand will be painfully crushed in the
vice-grip of your screaming wife as she
curses you for cursing her. In the end, you
will pull it together at the exact moment the
baby is handed to you and then everything
will be fine forever. FOREVER.
»»
The End
You live happily ever after until you die.
Spoiler Alert! You die at the end.
Now go get ‘em, tiger!
WOO >> cont. on page 34
8 1/2
BIJOU THEATER | 319-335-3041
Federico Fellini (1963)
IOWA MEMORIAL UNION , IC
SHOWTIMES & TRAILERS AT
Bijou, March 1-7
Have you seen the movie Nine? About
a bunch of broads that influenced this
director dude, and Fergie aptly plays
a nasty prostitute? 8 ½ is a lot like
that movie except that it’s a cinematic
treasure from a cornerstone of the
pantheon of Italian Neorealism instead
of a stinking pile of fetid garbage.
bijou.uiowa.edu
A non-profit, student—run cinema screening independent,
art house, foreign and classic films since 1972.
FEB. 22-28
Tchoupitoulas (80 min, BluRay)
Middle of Nowhere (99 min, BlueRay)
MAR. 1-7
8 1/2 (138 min, 35 mm)
The Intouchables (113 min, DCP)
PUBLIC
ADMISSION
ONLY
7
$
UI STUDENT
ADMISSION
ONLY
3
$
POPCORN,
CANDY AND
SODA ONLY
1
$
end in a happy marriage. Congratulations!
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
27
On the Beat
steve crowley
Quick Hits
M
avis Staples is one of the world’s
most accomplished and respected soul and gospel singers. She
began singing in the early 1950s
for her family band, The Staple Singers. Led
by her father, “Pops,” the band hit the road
and gained considerable notoriety. It wasn’t
until the late 1960s that Staples began putting
out solo records under her own name. Since
then she has released 12 studio albums which
have been produced by the likes of Prince, Ry
Put these shows on your calendar
for Feb. 20-Mar. 6.
premier punk acts. On the bill this year is
Lipstick Homicide, Direct Hit, Nerv, The Ills,
Muddy Rails, The Men From … Beyond!, The
Statistixs, Conetrauma, Other Band and Well
Aren’t We Precious. To accommodate such a
lengthy list of bands, the music will begin early and power through into the wee hours of the
morning. Punk Farm II is at Gabe’s on Feb. 22.
Right now, Mountains may be one of the
best in the business when it comes to ambient, experimental music. Longtime friends
MOUNTAINS
w. General XOXO | Gabe's
Feb. 26 | 9 p.m. | $10
AESOP ROCK
w. Rob Sonic, DJ Wiz
Blue Moose | Mar. 5
7 p.m. | $18/20
Cooder and Jeff Tweedy. Her latest album, You
Are Not Alone (produced by Tweedy) was released in 2010 and won a Grammy for Best
Americana Album. Somewhat surprisingly, this
was Staples’ first Grammy Award. VH1 has
her listed as one of the 100 Greatest Women
of Rock and Roll, and Rolling Stone listed her
as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Staples has also earned her spot in the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. Considered by many to be a
living legend, Mavis Staples will be a treat for
anyone who decides to attend this show at the
Englert on Feb. 21. Supporting Staples will be
Lake Street Dive, featuring (Iowa City’s own)
bassist Bridget Kearney.
The second annual Punk Farm event will
once again be taking place at Gabe’s this
year. The lineup includes some of Iowa City’s
28 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
and bandmates Koen Holtkamp and Brendon
Anderegg got together and released two albums in 2005 and 2006 under their own label,
Apestaartje. Upon relocating from Chicago
to Brooklyn, the duo was picked up by Thrill
Jockey, where all of their subsequent albums
have been released. Their sound moves between layers of ambient drones, electronic
hooks and repetitive acoustic guitar patterns.
Mountains took two years off after 2011’s
Air Museum in order to focus on honing
their sound and finely crafting their compositions. The product is Centralia, released in
January and is arguably their most thoughtful
and ambitious album yet. It’s been met with
unanimously positive reviews from numerous
online publications, and was perhaps a tenth
of a point shy of earning Pitchfork’s coveted
“Best New Music” stamp (receiving an 8.1
out of 10). The album was also one of the first
WHITE MYSTERY
w. Good Habits, We Shave
The Mill| Feb. 28 | 11 p.m. |$7
The Bad Plus
The Mill | Mar. 2
7:30 p.m. & 9:30 | $10/20
www.LittleVillageMag.com
LIVE
LIVEMUSIC
MUSICPREVIEW
PREVIEW
since their debut self-titled album in 2001,
which they wrote and recorded after only three
performances as a band. Since then the group
has put out seven more albums. While they
enjoy exploring the possibilities of musical
composition, much of their influence comes
from popular music. In addition to their original pieces, The Bad Plus guys often put their
own spin on songs from bands like Nirvana,
Rush, Neil Young, Aphex Twin, Interpol and
David Bowie. Their cover of Radiohead’s
“Karma Police” was featured
on the tribute compilation,
Exit Music: Songs with Radio
Heads. Sometimes choosing to play too many cover
songs is a tad gimmicky, so
to be clear, these guys are
not a gimmicky band. They
are highly regarded as artists
and masters of their craft. In
2010 and 2011 The Bad Plus
served as artists in residence
at Duke University. The ensemble that Rolling Stone
once called, “about as badass
as highbrow gets,” will perform two shows, one at 7:30
MAVIS STAPLES p.m. and another at 9:30 p.m.
w. Lake Street Dive at the Mill on March 2.
Feb. 21 | Englert
Ian Bavitz—better known
8 p.m. | $35/55
by his stage name Aesop
Rock—began his rap career
when he was just a highschooler. By the time he had
graduated college in 1998 he had self-released
a full-length hip-hop album, which gave him
momentum for his possibly career-determining follow-up EP, Appleseed. The EP found
its way into underground hip-hop circles and
was met with critical acclaim. His unique
flow and sometimes deeply metaphoric lyriin quotes not only because of their lively and cal content brought Bavitz to the forefront of
relentless garage rock aesthetic, but also be- a new hip hop movement at the turn of the decause, well, they both have really crazy red hair. cade. The Aesop Rock project was put on hold
White Mystery has two albums under their belt, in 2007 and has just returned from hiatus with
each of which has been met with positive criti- the album, Skelethon, released last summer
cal reception. Their live show has been highly by Minneapolis-based label, Rhymesayers.
praised as well by The Onion’s A.V. Club, The Bavitz is currently touring the U.S. heavily
Huffington Post, The Chicago Tribune and and preparing to release another album this
MTV. The genre of throwback garage rock is a May with Kimya Dawson, under the name
trend that still seems to be on the rise. There are Hokey Fright. Aesop Rock makes his stop at
so many bands that are trying to achieve a simi- the Blue Moose on Mar. 5 with guests Rob
lar sound and style to that of White Mystery, Sonic and DJ Big Wiz.
and so many just miss the mark. White Mystery
have been touring heavily and are getting ready Steve Crowley is a red blooded Wisconsinite
to release their third album, Telepathic, in April. marooned in the fetid morass of Iowa City that
White Mystery will play at The Mill on Feb. 28. had to make due with the yokels and, over the
course of five years, came to quite like it here.
Local acts Good Habits and We Shave open.
Avant-garde jazz trio, The Bad Plus, have
been pushing the boundaries of modern jazz
to be pre-released on Pitchfork’s new interactive music streaming platform, Pitchfork
Advance. Opening up for Mountains will be
Iowa City sound design gurus General XOXO
(featuring poet Dora Malech, filmmaker Jason
Livingston and members of the band Wind
Farm). This show will take place on Feb. 26 at
Gabe’s (it will NOT be at The Mill on the Feb.
22 as was originally scheduled).
Alex and Francis White make up the “fiery”
bother-sister duo, White Mystery. I put “fiery”
Free shows weekly
from Public Space One
129 E. Washington St.
5-6 p.m. Thursdays
live on KRUI 89.7 fm
Facebook.com/LittleVillageLive
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
29
Local Albums
send cds for review to: little village, po box 736, iowa city, ia 52244
whispered hallowed malcontent,” smooths out
leaden guitar strums and utilizes the clean guitar tones to sound like a tropical bird cawing
over a field of cicadas.
John Schlotfelt is tired of waiting for the baseball season to begin.
the fun turns of phrase and sunny harmonies.
On their Facebook page The Blendours recommend twice-daily dosages of their music.
Seeing as Level 99 clocks in at just over 31
minutes (and none of the 19 tracks are over
three minutes in length) this is an easy poppunk pill to swallow. 2013 finds the band turning electric, augmenting the core duo of the
band—Trevor Treiber and Bre Senior—with
Ian Williams on drums and Abby Haley on
bass. This lineup will be releasing a split LP
with Canadian pop punkers Old Wives this
spring. Until then, join me in the challenge of
reaching Level 99.
Michael Roeder is a self-proclaimed "music savant." When he's not writing for Little Village
he blogs at www.playbsides.com.
Haunter
Perishing Road
haunter0.bandcamp.com
The full-length debut, Perishing Road, from
Haunter (a.k.a. Kyle Arthur Miller) is ideal for
late nights, headphones and staring out at the
frozen tundra. Miller’s new collection of ambient compositions rewards those who put in
the time, with headphones bundled around the
ears. Perishing Road is a feast of guitar drone
interplay.
Miller draws so many different tones and
textures from his guitar. Despite the shifting
sonic palettes, he keeps a consistent mood.
“Éclatant dans la banalité totale” opens with
a warm up of sorts: Miller plucks around on
a series of random notes as two other guitars
trade escalating and receding wails, rise and
fall together, then finally soar off to nearly
ear-piercing heights. Around the three-minute
mark, new sounds drip, melt and bleed from
the stratospheric wails, filling in the middle
and bass registers. The rest of the piece sounds
like an orchestra doing warm ups as it slowly
carves a new path through a mountain range.
“Twost” emerges gently from the last gasps
of “Éclatant’s” fuzz. The second piece dances
and flutters around like snowflakes refusing to
land, but eventually, all is swallowed by the
mammoth guitar drones of “We walk through
darkness on perishing roads.” The sequencing
of the top half of Perishing Road is masterful; the pieces fold and unfold into one another
with bonds so strong that each one feels composed to complement the previous.
It’s not until the closing tracks that anything
seems amiss. On “Lone the lostern” Miller
favors a nearly unvarnished guitar tone and
loops aimless guitar over clunky strums. The
cleaner tone and the heavy thrums lack the elegance or the imposing strength of the earlier
compositions. However, the eighth piece, “In
30 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
The Blendours
Level 99
theblendours.bandcamp.com/
The continuing influence of The Ramones’
music on the face of rock years after their
breakup is a testament to the idea that simple
and direct is the most effective approach to
getting to the hearts of youth. Directly or indirectly, any variation of punk rock today owes
a debt to the amphetamine-driven sped-up version of ‘60s rock that The Ramones made.
The Blendours—comprised of members
from Coralville and Cedar Rapids—take The
Ramones’ formula of fast pop punk, only replacing the occasional themes of brutality and
glue sniffing with video games and Anime. On
Level 99, we are again treated to the avalanche
of acoustic guitar chords and doo-wop harmonies established with the band’s 2011 debut album It Came From the Radio. I hesitate to call
it a concept album, but a few of the songs concern themselves with video gaming, including
“Level 99” and “Love Only Costs A Quarter.”
“Ian’s Burger Boss” is possibly the only song
ever written about the wonders of having a video arcade emulator in a classic arcade cabinet—
“It’s time to play, it’s time to play. Forget about
costs. It’s time to play, it’s time to play. There’s
no pressing pause. Ian’s Burger Boss.”
The Blendours don’t take themselves too
seriously and I often find myself grinning with
Angle
White Andy
angle1.bandcamp.com
Angle and Coolzey are Iowa hip-hop veterans, but to my knowledge White Andy is
their first collaboration. They don’t pussyfoot
around; “White Andy” is a character Angle
(Jarid Catrenich) who takes on the issue of hip
hop and race in possibly the most ridiculous,
over-the-top manner, including appearing in
White Face on the cover. “Two white dudes
making music for people of all colors,” drawls
Coolzey at the end of “Blazee.”
I’ve used the word ‘cartoonish’ more than
once in reviewing past releases by these guys,
and with White Andy they take the broad humor further than ever before. Which is how
White Andy succeeds—only too much is
enough. Angle mashes up horror movie references and childhood memories in “Abysses,”
and “Chinee” starts with references to Public
Enemy and Tupac before taking on his
www.LittleVillageMag.com
implacable, eternal foe: weak MCs. “Farns,”
the posse track, featuring no less than seven
guest MCs including Iowa veteran mic handlers
Felix Thunder and Tremayne.
As much as I appreciate Angle’s diction,
flow and writing, this CD represents a leap forward in production for Coolzey. From a beat
skeleton banged out on a
sampling drum machine, he
adds texture with tasty backing vocals, piano, organ and
sound effects. “Hiyah” is
the best Coolzey beat I’ve
heard so far, and he has
always had a great ear for
production. Angle seems
to be really inspired by the
music he has to work with:
On “Abysses” he finds the
groove in a shambling oddball beat layered
with horror movie strings. The one non-Coolzey beat, “Rocket” by Tinkerbot, has a perfect
Prince Paul meets Schoolhouse Rock feel.
“A little wack-a-doodle and I like it that
way,” Angle intones on “Hiyah” and that’s actually a good review for this seven-track EP.
Silly, a little corny and unapologetic about
being exactly who they are: a couple of white
guys having fun and going nuts.ls
DJ 500 Benz
Geometrics II
dj500benz.bandcamp.com
DJ 500 Benz though still in his early 20s
has been very active in Iowa hip-hop scene
for the past few years, producing beats for a
variety of MCs—notably Rahlan Kay’s excellent Relationships from the summer of 2012.
Geometrics II is a different sort of thing, comprising tracks that fall under the electro house
heading. Electro house has little to do with actual electro or house; it’s the synth heavy dance
LOCAL ALBUMS
pop that seems to be swamping the pop charts
these days. As an old-school techno and house
fan, I feel like I should absolutely hate these
tracks. The fact that I keep listening to them
means that 500 Benz has some serious songwriting chops. This is full-on commercial ear
candy, but done so well I can’t help but enjoy it.
This is a guy who really likes Daft Punk;
“Wouldn’t Feel Right” echoes “Around The
World” as it begins, with a filtered female
vocal. It isn’t a direct copy, though, and 500
Benz’ skill as a producer comes through in
the subtle swish in the percussion and rhythmic synth lines. “Coatrooms and Cocktail
Waitress” combines skippy drum patterns with
a simplistic fat synth line that recalls South
African Kwaito. It has the sort of simplistic
repetition that goes right up to the edge of
mindlessness without falling in.
Given the poppy, super-shiny, up-to-theminute style of most of these songs, “Go” is
a surprise. It’s moody ‘half-stepper’ dubstep
emphasizes deep sustained bass, and thankfully
leaves out melodramatic bass drops. It’s the
sort of thing underground purists point to as the
alternative to current obnoxious trends in dubstep. Good on Benz for showing a little taste.
Apparently, Geometrics II is less a finished
album than a beat tape, meant as raw material
for tracks to be finished by other producers.
Each song encapsulates some great dance music gestures but doesn’t bother with the whole
build-up and breakdown structure of DJcentric dance tracks. As such, Geometrics II
feels half finished and sketchy. But grab these
tracks, put together your own extended edits
and you’ll be a hero in the DJ booth. Check
out the other joints on his bandcamp page, because DJ 500 Benz has beats for days.
Kent Williams turned up on the streets of
Nuremberg in 1828, unintelligible, wearing
odd clothes, and walking with a peculiar gait.
All he could say is “I want to be a horseman
like my father was.”
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
31
The Straight Dope
Cecil Adams
Have virgins ever been tossed into
volcanoes to appease the gods?
My query concerns the common conception
of primitive cultures sacrificing virgins by
throwing them into the maw of an active
volcano. Many people seem to think this
actually happened, but I can’t find even
one reliable report of human sacrifice this
way. Is it a Hollywood invention? Tell me
the truth, Cecil. Have any virgins anywhere
ever been tossed into a live volcano to appease an irate god?
—Ken
As with so many popular beliefs, the answer boils down to: (1) this story is mostly
Hollywood BS, but (2) not 100 percent. To get
a better handle on things, let’s look at different
permutations of the concept, starting with the
least plausible and working up.
Virgins have been thrown into volcanoes
to appease god(s). This is the story in purest
form—so pure, in fact, that I haven’t been able
to find any actual examples of it. The closest I got was the 1932 film Bird of Paradise,
starring Dolores del Rio as native girl Luana.
Plotwise it breaks down as: boy meets girl,
boy hooks up with girl, girl is betrothed to
someone else, boy steals girl, boy is cursed
by volcano goddess Pele, girl sacrifices self to
appease Pele and save boy. Long in the public
domain, the film is available for free download
and worth every penny.
I need to point out a couple things, though.
First, while Luana’s primitive culture is perfectly willing to sacrifice her to placate the
volcano god, it doesn’t actually do so. She
sacrifices herself.
Second, volcanoes suitable for throwing
women into for the most part don't exist. The
popular idea is that a volcanic cone has a lake
of molten lava inside, perhaps with a rocky
promontory jutting out from the rim to provide
a convenient spot for victim-flinging. In reality, an erupting volcano typically spews lava
up or outward from a cone, vent, or fissure,
after which the lava flows laterally along the
flattish surfaces nearby. One could, I suppose,
shove a sacrificial individual into one of these
flows and thereby incinerate her (or him), but
that doesn’t constitute tossing a virgin into a
volcano as the trope is usually understood.
Virgins have been sacrificed on, if not in,
volcanoes. I’ll go out on a limb and say this
32 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
is 100 percent true. The mummified remains
of numerous murdered Incan children, many
of them female, have been found on the upper
slopes of volcanoes in the Andes. For example, a girl was discovered on Mount Ampato
in Peru in 1995 and two girls and a boy on
Llullaillaco in Argentina in 1999. The victims,
aged six to adulthood, were well dressed and
nourished, suggesting they’d been fattened for
the slaughter. I don’t know if on examination
any of the children were found to be virgins
but will politely assume they were.
Archaeologist Johan Reinhard, who led
the expeditions that found the Ampato and
Llullaillaco mummies, has conjectured that
sacrifices at Ampato were intended to stop
a volcanic eruption nearby. The site is only
reachable when volcanic heat has melted the
snow, and in fact Reinhard was only able to
get there because of an eruption at the time.
Humans, but especially children, have
been sacrificed to the gods, or to accompany
deceased rulers who presumably were going
to join the gods. This is so abundantly and
widely true that it may not seem worth mentioning, but we ought not to let our interest in
a particularly baroque sacrificial mode blind
us to the larger truth, namely that our species
has slaughtered innocents by the uncountable
thousands since antiquity, without even the excuse of war. Examples:
• As part of the funeral rites of the Incan ruler
Huayna Capac a thousand people were sacrificed, including many children.
• The sacrificial cenote, a big sinkhole at the
Mayan city of Chichen Itza, was found to contain the skeletons of children mostly from 7
to 15 years old. It’s guessed that the victims
were selected for their beauty and freedom
from blemish, signifying innocence, youth,
and (temporarily) health.
• In the Bible, the cornerstone of the Western
moral code, Abraham famously comes close to
sacrificing his son Isaac, and Jephthah actually
does kill his daughter in return for winning a war.
Send questions to Cecil via straightdope.com or
write him c/o Chicago Reader, 350 N. Orleans,
Chicago 60654. Subscribe to the Straight Dope
podcast at the iTunes.
Getting back to volcanoes:
• In Indonesian legend, a princess and her husband prayed to the god of the Mount Bromo
volcano to give them children. The volcano delivered a total of 25, but required the last be offered as a sacrifice. Today, villagers commemorate the event by throwing food, livestock, and
money into the crater, which more practical
types wait below the rim to catch.
• American writer Armstrong Perry claimed he
witnessed the sacrifice of a young man thrown
into a lava pit in the Solomon Islands, and says
he narrowly escaped the same fate.
• Classical legend says the Greek philosopher
Empedocles threw himself into Mount Etna as
a sacrifice after healing a woman near death.
Why? Who knows? We’ll file this one under
“alcohol may have been involved.”
—CECIL ADAMS
www.LittleVillageMag.com
Curses, Foiled Again
• While serving time in the Gwinnett County,
Ga., jail for paying an undercover police officer $3,000 to murder his neighbor and former business partner, Joseph Memar, 65, was
caught again trying to have the man killed.
Police Cpl. Jake Smith said Memar spread the
word among inmates, met with a plainclothes
officer during his visitation time, offered the
officer $10,000 to kill the man and told him
where to go to collect the money. (The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution)
• New York City police charged a teenage boy
with stealing a girl’s iPhone after he called police to report someone had stolen the iPhone
from him. “He portrays himself as being a
complainant,” Sgt. Arnoldo Martinez said. “A
victim.” The second thief snatched it while the
teen was trying to sell it to him. Police quickly
located the man and drove him and the teen
to the police station. Meanwhile, police in a
neighboring precinct were driving the original
victim around looking for the three teens who
snatched the phone from her. They eventually
called the iPhone, and when the officer who
answered it identified himself, the
officers met. They arrested the
teen after the girl identified
him by his pink sneakers
and her PIN unlocked
the phone but he failed.
(The New York Times)
Super Outage
• The power blackout
that halted the Super
Bowl was caused by an
electrical relay installed
to prevent a power failure,
according to the company that
supplied electricity to the Superdome. “The
purpose of it was to provide a newer, more advanced type of protection,” Entergy Corp. executive Dennis Dawsey told the New Orleans
City Council, explaining the relay was part of
an upgrade to the Superdome’s electrical system undertaken in 2011 in anticipation of the
championship game. (Associated Press)
• The 34-minute delay turned out to be the fourth
most-watched television broadcast of all time,
according to Nielsen Media. The ratings agency
said the 107 million people who sat through the
delay, which featured a camera trained at the
Superdome ceiling to show that half the overhead lights had gone out, is more than watched
the 2009 Super Bowl and the final episode of
Roland Sweet
M*A*S*H in 1983. “Super Bowl XLVII Delay”
was topped only by Super Bowl XLVII itself
(109 million viewers), 2011’s Super Bowl XLV
(111.0 million) and last year’s Super Bowl XLVI
(111.4 million). (The Washington Post)
Compelling Testimony
Judge Robert Coleman declared a mistrial
in the case of a fight in a Philadelphia parking lot that cost John Huttick his left eye
because while the victim was testifying, his
prosthetic eye popped out, startling two jurors.
“I couldn’t believe it just came out,” Huttick
said. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Taxing Proposition
Vincent Burroughs, 40, filed a lawsuit
against IRS agent Dora Abrahamson, claiming
she threatened him with a tax penalty unless he
had sex with her. Burroughs said Abrahamson
contacted him about an audit and subsequently
flirted with him over the telephone and via text
messages, offered him massages and sent him
a photo of herself in underwear. He finally
gave in to her demands when she arrived at his
home in Fall Creek, Ore., “provocatively attired” and said “she could impose no penalty, or a 40 percent
penalty, and that if he would
give her what she wanted,
she would give him what
he needed.” (Eugene’s
The Register-Guard)
Second-Amendment
Follies
• Police who heard gunfire
while investigating an attempted robbery at a Las Vegas
restaurant reported “the gunshot
was a result of a firearm being tossed into a
deep fryer and exploding.” Officers arrested
Obdulio Gudiel, 44, who pointed the gun at
two men but insisted he wasn’t trying to rob
them, just collect money they owed him. (Las
Vegas Review-Journal)
• Army Spc. Patrick Edward Myers, 27, admitted shooting his friend in the face while they
were watching a football game at an apartment
in Killeen, Texas, but explained he was only
trying to scare him to cure his hiccups. Myers,
who was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison,
told police he believed the weapon had dummy rounds. (Associated Press)
• Lauren Shaw, 28, and her fiancé were shooting at a gun range in Myakka City, Fla., when,
News Quirks
according to the sheriff’s report, a casing ejected
from Shaw’s .45-caliber handgun and landed in
her blouse. When she bent over to remove the hot
shell, she unknowingly pointed the weapon at the
man’s leg and accidentally fired a round that went
through his right thigh. (Tampa Bay Tribune)
• Gun lover Keith Ratliff, 32, who became
a celebrity for his online videos about highpowered and exotic guns and explosives, was
found dead in his office in Carnesville, Ga.,
from a single gunshot to the head. The Georgia
Bureau of Investigation said Ratliff was surrounded by numerous weapons, including
some he made himself, but not the one that
killed him. (The New York Times)
• Having purchased an AK-47 assault rifle
because he feared an impending gun ban,
Kirill Bartashevitch, 51, pointed the gun at his
teenage daughter and threatened her because
she was getting two B’s in school instead of
straight A’s. The resident of St. Paul, Minn.,
admitted pointing the weapon at the girl and
his wife but assured police it wasn’t loaded.
(Minneapolis’s Star Tribune)
Dig Up That Confederate Money
For the third session in a row, Virginia
lawmaker Robert G. Marshall proposed that
the state consider issuing its own currency.
Instead of dismissing it as before, this year
House of Delegates passed the bill by a 2-to-1
margin. Insisting the measure would prevent
financial institutions like the Federal Reserve
from causing the U.S. economy to wind up
like Germany’s Weimar Republic, which had
worthless currency, skyrocketing inflation and
a crumbling government, Marshall explained
it calls for a commission to study “the need,
means and schedule for establishing a metallic-based monetary unit to serve as a contingency currency for the Commonwealth.” The
study would cost $17.440 in U.S. money. (The
Washington Post)
Presto, Gone-o
After Glynn County, Ga., Coroner Jimmy
Durden said the death of county commissioner Tom Sublett, 52, was a suicide, his family contested the verdict. They insist Sublett,
who was shot in the head and drowned after
leaving a poker game with friends, had been
in good spirits and his “normal” self. Also,
police found an empty holster and bullets next
to the body matching those that shot Sublett,
but after two months hadn’t found the gun.
(Associated Press)
Compiled from mainstream news sources by
Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
33
TALKING MOVIES
>> WOO cont. from page 27
Have Doubts, Dummy?
Hi folks! It’s me; Filmy the Anthropomorphic
Video Cassette! I’m here to play backup singer to all of Kit’s outrageous claims and gross
generalities! Follow me, section by section,
for some much needed support.
»»
1. Who to Woo
Here Kit makes fairly ageist claims about who
deserves romantic love and who doesn’t; Teens
do, and the Elderly don’t. Ever wondered why
the old lady in Titanic is single and the young
version of her has men fighting over her? Is it
because Leo drowns and freezes and dies like
a wuss? No! It’s because no one wants to see
the old lady hold conjugal congress in the back
of a car on a boat. She coulda, too! I mean,
there were tons of guys there. But she knew
that she was an old lady and therefore undeserving of love.
»»
2. How to Woo
In Dr. Strangelove, no guy gets no girl. That’s
because they all failed to save the world. Will
Smith and Jeff Goldblum are swimmin’ in
women at the end of Independence Day. ‘Nuff
said.
»»
3. So You’ve Wooed
“Aladdin, it’s not that you’re not actually a
prince, it’s that you lied about it.” Jasmine and
Aladdin are back together 20 minutes later.
“Hitch, it’s not that you’re coaching men on
how to pick up women, it’s that you didn’t tell
me that’s what you were doing.” Hitch gets the
girl back 20 minutes later. Now you try!
Calendar
Music
Wed., Feb. 20
Symphony Orchestra Main Lounge, Iowa
Memorial Union, UI campus, Free, 7:30 p.m. Tea
Leaf Green, Tumbleweed Wanderers The Mill,
$12/$15, 9 p.m.
Thurs., Feb. 21
Garage Rock Night Gabe's, Free, 10 p.m. Jake
Miller Blue Moose Tap House, $12-$20, 7 p.m.
Mavis Staples Englert, $35-$55, 8 p.m. MC
Animosity The Mill, $6, 9 p.m Saul Lubaroff Trio
Mendoza Wine Bar, Free, 7 p.m.
Fri., Feb. 22
An Evening with Chris Botti Paramount Theatre,
$35-$55, 8 p.m. Doctors in Concert Coralville
Center for the Performing Arts, $15-$25, 7 p.m.
Jazz After Five: Oddbar Quartet The Mill, Free,
5 p.m. Jimkata, Aotearoa Yacht Club, $8, 10 p.m
Jose Gobbo's Jazz & Bossa Nova Mendoza Wine
Bar, Free, 7 p.m. Orchestra Invitational Riverside
Recital Hall, UI campus, Free, 7 p.m. Punk Farm II Featuring Lipstick Homicide and others Gabe's, $5,
6 p.m. Stephane Wrembel Englert, $20/$25, 8 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 23
Andrew Epstein's Fried Egg String Band Uptown
Bill's, $5 suggested, 7 p.m. Brook Hoover's
Rockabilly Throwdown, Dissident Revolution,
SFW, Detrell Smith Public Space One, $5, 6 p.m.
Doug Langbehn Trio Mendoza Wine Bar, Free, 7
p.m. Jonathan Allen, trombone; Daniel Kubus,
piano Recital Hall, University Capitol Centre, UI
campus, Free, 5 p.m. Mike Hard, TV Ghost, Rusty
Buckets, Cool Boobs Gabe's, $7, 10 p.m. Seven Score
and Ten: Red Cedar Chamber Music Brucemore
Mansion, $30-$35, 8 p.m. Summercamp Battle of the
Bands: Poppa Neptune, Squids Beard, American
Honey, Zeta June Yacht Club, $5, 8:45 p.m.
www.LittleVillageMag.com
soprano and Linda Perry, piano Recital Hall,
University Capitol Centre, UI campus, Free, 7:30
p.m. Distinguished Clarinet Lecture/Recital
Series of Brazilian Music by Maurita Murphy
Mead and Ze Emilio Gobbo Old Capitol, UI
campus, Free, 3:30 p.m. G-Eazy, Skizzy Mars,
Black Lung, Skool'd Blue Moose Tap House,
$12/$14, 7 p.m. Jazz Vespers Trinity Episcopal
Church, Free, 5 p.m. John Jorgenson Quintet
Legion Arts, $17/$21, 7 p.m.
Mon., Feb. 25
Hoedown! Public Space One Fundraiser Public
Space One, 6 p.m.-Midnight Open Mic with J.
Knight The Mill, Free, 8 p.m.
Tues., Feb. 26
Brooks Strause & The Gory Details, Nate
Logsdon, Huge Lewis, Erie Whitaker The Mill, $5,
9 p.m. Mountains, General XOXO Gabe's, 9 p.m.
Wed., Feb. 27
Burlington Street Bluegrass Band The Mill, $5, 7
p.m. Head for the Hills Yacht Club, $7, 8 p.m. UI
String Quartet Residency Program: “Under the
Hood:” Behind the scenes with the Linden String
Quartet Riverside Recital Hall, UI campus, Free,
12:30 p.m.
Thurs., Feb. 28
Jonathan Richman w/ Tommy Larkins Gabe's,
$12, 8 p.m. Sam Knutson Mendoza Wine Bar, Free,
7 p.m. UI String Quartet Residency Program
Master Class: Linden String Quartet Music West
Interim Building, UI campus, Free, 12:30 p.m.
White Mystery, Good Habits, We Shave The Mill,
$7, 11 p.m. You're Too Kind Yacht Club, $5, 7 p.m.
Fri., Mar. 1
General B and the Wiz Yacht Club, $5, 10 p.m.
Midnight Conspiracy, Adam Miller, DarkGrey,
Electrocity Gabe's, $10, 10 p.m.
Sun., Feb. 24
Alumni Recital featuring Emily Truckenbrod,
That’s all, folks! And don’t forget: when you
throw out old videotapes like me, you’re betraying inanimate friends who love you. Death
to DVDs!!!
Kit Bryant lives in Iowa City with her
valid alibi and several innocuous non-lethal pastimes. Outside the workplace, she
enjoys sarcasm, light spanking, and fleeting moments of hope and levity. Her blog is
popslashcorn.wordpress.com
34 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
Gift Certificates available for
weekly prepared meals
Veggieburgers now available at
both New Pioneer Food Co-ops
Calendar listings are free, on a space-available basis. For inclusion, please email Calendar@LittleVillageMag.com
Sat., Mar. 2
Dave Moore Uptown Bill's, $5 suggested, 7 p.m.
Dennis McMurrin & The Demolition Band 100th
Show Yacht Club, $7, 10 p.m. Item 9 & the Mad
Hatters Gabe's, $5, 10 p.m. SkisM Blue Moose Tap
House, $15, 9 p.m. The Bad Plus Club Hancher at
The Mill, $10-$20, 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. UI String
Quartet Residency Program: Linden String Quartet
Riverside Recital Hall, UI campus, Free, 7:30 p.m.
Sun., Mar. 3
Capture The Crown, Ice Nine Kills, Noah,
Moments Like These, Dream Anabelle Blue
Moose Tap House, $10/$12, 6 p.m. Chad Burrow,
clarinet, and guests Recital Hall, University
Capitol Centre, UI campus, Free, 7:30 p.m. Piano
Sunday with Ksenia Nosikova and studio Old
Capitol Museum, UI campus, Free, 1:30 p.m.
Richard Fracker, tenor Recital Hall, University
Capitol Centre, UI campus, Free, 3 p.m. Robert
Earl Keen Englert, $30/$32, 7 p.m. Tenth Avenue
North: The Struggle Tour Paramount Theatre,
$19-$41, 6 p.m. The Color Pharmacy, Flash in the
Pan Gabe's, $5, 8 p.m.
Mon., Mar. 4
Open Mic with J. Knight The Mill, Free, 8 p.m. UI
Saxophone Quartet Recital Riverside Recital Hall,
UI campus, Free, 7:30 p.m.
Tues., Mar. 5
Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, DJ Big Wiz Blue Moose
Tap House, $18/$20, 7 p.m. Jazz Faculty George's
Buffet, 8 p.m.
Wed., Mar. 6
Improvisation for Classical Musicians Recital
Recital Hall, University Capitol Centre, UI campus,
Free, 7:30 p.m. letlive, HRVRD, Night Verses,
Conditions, Rescuer Gabe's, $12/$14, 6 p.m.
Feb. 22-23
Bandwith Fest Blue Moose Tap House, $6/night or
$10 both nights
Saturdays: Free Bass Dance Party Blue Moose
Tap House, Free, 9 p.m.
Tuesdays: Flight School Dance Party Yacht Club,
$1-$5, 10 p.m.
Wednesdays: Jam Session Yacht Club, Free, 10 p.m.
Second/Fourth Thursdays: Super Soul Session
Gabe's, Free, 10 p.m.
Thursdays: Little Village Live Public Space One,
Free, 5 p.m. Mixology: Dance Party Gabe's, Free,
10 p.m. Old Capitol Chorus (Weekly Practice)
Robert A. Lee Community Recreation Center, Free,
7:30 p.m. Open Mic Uptown Bill's, Free, 7 p.m.
Theatre
Fri., Feb. 22
Diamonds or Denim: Riverside
Fundraiser hotelVetro, $50-$55, 6 p.m.
Theatre
Calendar
Sat., Feb. 23
The Magistrate - National Theatre Live Englert,
$15-$18, 7 p.m.
Feb. 21-23
Mike Daisey, "American Utopias" Hancher
Auditorium (at Theatre Building, UI campus)
$10-$30 Puppets and Pastries: Dessert Theatre
for Adults Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre, $15, 8 p.m.
Venues
Akar 257 East Iowa Ave., Iowa City,
(319) 351-1227, akardesign.com
Beadology 220 East Washington St., Iowa City,
(319) 338-1566, beadologyiowa.com
Bijou Cinema The University of Iowa, 166-B Iowa
Memorial Union, Iowa City, (319) 335-3041,
bijou.uiowa.edu
Blue Moose Tap House 211 Iowa Avenue, Iowa
City, (319) 358-9206, bluemooseic.com
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art 410 3rd Ave.
Southeast, Cedar Rapids, (319) 366-7503, crma.org
Coralville Center for the Performing Arts 1301
5th St., Coralville, (319) 248-9370, coralvillearts.org
Coralville Public Library 1401 5th St., Coralville,
(319) 248-1850, coralvillepubliclibrary.org
Englert 221 East Washington Street, Iowa City,
(319) 688-2653, englert.org
Figge Art Museum 225 West Second St.,
Davenport, (563) 326-7804, figgeart.org
FilmScene Starlite Cinema - Festival Stage, City
Park, Iowa City, icfilmscene.org
First Avenue Club 1550 South First Ave., Iowa
City, (319) 337-5527, firstavenueclub.com
Frank Conroy Reading Room The University of
Iowa, Dey House, 507 N. Clinton, Iowa City
Gabe's 330 East Washington St., Iowa City
(319) 351-9175, icgabes.com
Hancher Auditorium (Space Place Theater) The
University of Iowa, North Hall, 20 W. Davenport
St., Iowa City, (319) 335-1160, hancher.uiowa.edu
Iowa Artisans Gallery 207 East Washington St.,
Iowa City (319) 351-8686, iowa-artisans-gallery.com
Iowa Childrens Museum 1451 Coral Ridge Ave.,
Coralville, (319) 625-6255, theicm.org
Iowa City Public Library 123 South Linn Street,
Iowa City, (319) 356-5200 icpl.org
Iowa Theatre Artists Company 4709 220th Trl,
Amana, (319) 622-3222 iowatheatreartists.org
Johnson County Fairgrounds 4265 Oak Crest
Hill Road Southeast, Iowa City, (319) 337-5865,
johnsoncofair.com
Legion Arts (CSPS) 1103 3rd St. Southeast, Cedar
Rapids, (319) 364-1580, legionarts.org
Mendoza Wine Bar 1301 5th St., Coralville,
(319) 333-1291, facebook.com/mendozawinebar
Paramount Theatre 123 3rd Ave SE, Cedar Rapids,
(319) 398-5226, paramounttheatrecr.com
Penguin's Comedy Club 208 2nd Ave SE, Cedar
Rapids, (319) 362-8133, penguinscomedyclub.com
Prairie Lights 15 South Dubuque St., Iowa City,
(319) 337-2681, www.prairielights.com
ps-z 120 N Dubuque St, Iowa City, (319) 3318893, pszic.com
Public Space One 129 East Washington St., Iowa
City,(319) 331-8893, publicspaceone.com
Red Cedar Chamber Music (Ballantyne
Auditorium, Kirkwood, Cedar Rapids) 1495 Douglas
Ct., Marion, (319) 377-8028, www.redcedar.org
Redstone Room, River Music Experience
129 N Main St., Davenport, (563) 326-1333,
rivermusicexperience.org
Riverside Theatre 213 N Gilbert St., Iowa City,
(319) 338-7672, riversidetheatre.org
Rozz Tox 2108 3rd Ave, Rock Island, IL, (
309) 200-0978, rozztox.com
The Mill 120 E Burlington St. Iowa City,
(319) 351-9529, icmill.com
Theatre Cedar Rapids 102 3rd St. Southeast,
Cedar Rapids, (319) 366-8591, theatrecr.org
Theatre Building The University of Iowa, 200
North Riverside Dr., (319) 335-1160
theatre.uiowa.edu
University of Iowa Museum of Art 1375 Hwy 1
West, Iowa City, (319) 335-1727, uima.uiowa.edu
University of Iowa Museum of Natural History
Macbride Hall, Iowa City, (319) 335-0480,
uiowa.edu/mnh
Uptown Bill's 730 South Dubuque St., Iowa City,
(319) 339-0804, uptownbills.org (Spoken Word
Wednesdays at 6:30, Artvaark Thursdays at 6 p.m.,
Open Mic Thursdays at 7 p.m.)
Yacht Club 13 South Linn St., Iowa City, (319) 3376464, iowacityyachtclub.org (Flight School Dance
Party on Tuesdays, Jam Session on Wednesdays)
Submit venues and events:
Calendar@LittleVillageMag.com
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
35
Calendar
Submit Events: Calendar@LittleVillageMag.com
Feb. 22-24
"Dust & Ash" and "Mold" - UI Theatre Gallery
Productions Theatre Building, UI campus, Students
free; $5 general public, 8 p.m. Feb. 22 and 23; 2
p.m. Feb. 24
Feb. 28-Mar. 3
Grease
Presented by Regina High School
Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, $10$24 La Ronde - A UI Theatre Workshop Theatre
Building, UI campus, Students free; $5 general
public, 8 p.m.
Mar. 1-2
The King and I - Presented by Iowa City
Community Theatre Englert, $12-$20, 7:30 p.m.
Mar. 1-20
Walking the Wire: TMI (Monologues) Riverside
Theatre, $15-$28
Mar. 1-23
Legally Blonde The Musical Theatre Cedar
Rapids, $15-$30
Through Mar. 9
[title of show] Theatre Cedar Rapids, $10-$25
Art/Exhibitions
Thurs., Feb. 21
“Beyond Racism: The Civil War, Emancipation,
and the continuing struggle for ‘a new birth of
freedom’” - A Talk with Humanities Iowa Speaker
Hal Chase Old Capitol Museum, UI campus,
Free, 6:30 p.m. UI Explorers Seminar Series:
Dr. James Enloe & Ted Marks, Department of
Anthropology Museum of Natural History, UI
campus, Free, 7 p.m.
Sun., Feb. 24
4th Annual Craft Crawl Beadology Iowa, Ben
Franklin Crafts, Common Threads Quilt Shoppe,
Fired Up Iowa City, Inc., Home Ec. Workshop, and
The Knitting Shoppe 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Fri., Mar. 1
"Social Studies" Opening Reception Englert - The
Douglas & Linda Paul Gallery, Free, 5 p.m. Gallery
Walk downtown Iowa City, 5-8p.m.
Feb. 22-Mar. 10
New Works by Shawn Ireland Akar
36 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
Feb. 25-Mar. 2
"Kinder Genler," Graphic Design Art Building
West, UI Campus
February
Lina Anda Dalmar and Regine Osbak Public
Space One
March
"Drought Behavior," Patrick Reed Public Space One
Ongoing
A Legacy for Iowa: Modern Masterworks from
the University of Iowa Museum of Art Figge Art
Museum Eye on UI Faculty Figge Art Museum The
Restless Spirit: American Art from the Collection
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art "Social Studies,"
Michael Kienzle, painting Englert - The Douglas &
Linda Paul Gallery, Free Robert Polidori: Selected
Works, 1985-2009 (Photography) Faulconer Gallery,
Grinnell College Sculpting with Fiber Figge Art
Museum Western Africa: Before the Boats African
American Museum of Iowa Alison Saar: STILL...
(sculpture) Figge Art Museum Artists Caught
Behind the Iron Curtain: The Freeman Collection
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library Bertha
Jaques: Botanical Prints and Photographs Cedar
Rapids Museum of Art Gone to See the Elephant:
The Civil War through the Eyes of Iowa Soldiers
Old Capitol Museum, UI Campus, Free Prague 1968:
Photographs by Paul Goldsmith National Czech &
Slovak Museum & Library
www.LittleVillageMag.com
Cinema
Sat., Feb. 23
The Ioway 2 & 3 Museum of Natural History, UI
campus, 6:30 p.m.
Sun., Feb. 24
Hollywood Live! - Oscar Party Englert, $10
suggested donation, 6 p.m.
Tues., Feb. 26
Jesse McLean screening Public Space One, 7:30
p.m.
Feb. 21-22
Situationist Film Festival (see publicspaceone.
com for details) Public Space One, 7 p.m.
Feb. 22-23
Midnight Cowboy Bijou Cinema
Feb. 22-28
Middle of Nowhere, Tchoupitoulas Bijou Cinema
Mar. 1-7
8½ Bijou Cinema
Mar. 2-7
The Intouchables Bijou Cinema
Comedy
Opening Wed., Feb. 6
I AM: Prints by Elizabeth Catlett Cedar Rapids
Museum of Art
Sat., Feb. 23
Comedy Showcase: Hosted by Bobby Bunch The
Mill, $6, 9 p.m.
Opening Sun., Mar. 3
Native Kids Ride Bikes Black Box Theater, Iowa
Memorial Union, UI campus
Fri., Mar. 1
Rodney Carrington Paramount Theatre, $44.75, 8
p.m.
Through Feb. 24
"Industrial
Monuments,"
Matt
Weber,
photography Studio Arts Building, UI campus
"Reflecting on the Sublime," Alyss Vernon,
photography Art Building West, UI campus
Through Feb. 28
Photographs by Pieta Brown Legion Arts
Feb. 22-23
Patti Vasquez Penguin's Comedy Club, $12.50,
7:30 p.m.
Through Mar. 3
Iowa City's Metropolitan Playhouse: Celebrating
the Englert's 100th Anniversary Johnson County
Historical Society
Thursdays: Artvaark (Art Activities) Uptown
Bill's, Free, 6 p.m.
Mar. 1-2
Heywood Banks Penguin's Comedy Club, $22.50,
7:30 p.m.
Mondays
Catacombs of Comedy Yacht Club, $3, 9 p.m.
LIterature
Wed., Feb. 20
Lucie Brock-Broido, poetry Dey House, UI
campus, Free, 8 p.m.
Calendar
A-List
Thurs., Feb. 21
Dan Beachy-Quick & Sally Keith Prairie Lights,
Free, 7 p.m.
Mon., Feb. 25
Ayana Mathis presented by Prairie Lights Englert
Theatre, Free, 7 p.m.
Tues., Feb. 26
Dina Nayeri Prairie Lights, Free, 7 p.m.
Wed., Feb. 27
Jim McKean Prairie Lights, Free, 7 p.m.
Reading: Ayana Mathis
Englert Theatre
Feb. 25. | 7 p.m.
New York Times best selling author
Ayana Mathis will be reading from
her debut novel, The Twelve Tribes of
Hattie (Knopf, 2012), at the Englert
Theater on Feb. 25. The reading will
be presented by Prairie Lights Books.
Mathis is currently a visiting professor
at the University of Iowa Writers’
Workshop, where she graduated
with an MFA in Fiction. Her novel
has received wide recognition, first
as the winner of the 2012 Michener
Copernicus Fellowship and then as
the second book selection by Oprah’s
Book Club 2.0. Critic Michiko Kakutani
of the New York Times called the novel
“astonishingly powerful,” and echoed
Oprah’s comparison of Mathis’s work
to that of Toni Morrison.
The novel is written in ten connected
chapters, centering around Hattie
Shepherd and her family. Hattie
escapes the South during the Jim
Crow period to seek a better life in
Philadelphia. With her husband,
August, she has two children who
are lost to illness and poverty while
still young. Although she goes on
to bear nine more, the experience
is deeply traumatic for Hattie and
has disastrous consequences for
her surviving children. Raised by an
emotionally detached mother and an
absent, philandering father, the basic
needs of the kids are met but little
more is offered to them. The novel is
structured so that each character is
examined, detailing the effects of the
family's troubled history on their lives.
The stories build until the last chapter,
when Hattie herself finally appears for
a satisfying and emotionally complex
resolution.
Thurs., Feb. 28
Margot Livesey Dey House, UI campus, Free, 8 p.m.
Mon., Mar. 4
Rus Bradburd Prairie Lights, Free, 7 p.m.
Wed., Mar. 6
A Reading by Lawrence Weschler, essayist Biology
Building East, Room 101, UI campus, Free, 7 p.m.
Wednesdays: Spoken Word Uptown Bill's, Free, 7 p.m.
Dance
Feb. 21-23
Faculty/Graduate Dance Concert Space Place
Theatre, UI Campus, $6-$12, 8 p.m.
Wednesdays: UI Swing Club Public Space One,
Free, 7:30 p.m.
Kids
Fri., Feb. 22
Night at the Museum: Turtles and Tortoise
Museum of Natural History, UI campus, $25/child,
6-9 p.m. STEM Family Free Night Iowa Children's
Museum, Free, 5 p.m.
Mondays & Tuesdays: Toddler Storytimes Iowa
City Public Library, Free, 10:30 a.m.
Tuesdays: Preschool Storytime Coralville Public
Library, Free, 10:30 a.m.
Wednesdays & Thursdays: Preschool Storytimes
Iowa City Public Library, Free, 10:30 a.m.
Thursdays: Wee Read Coralville Public Library,
Free, 10:15 & 11:15 a.m. Toddler Story Time at the
CRMA Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Free, 1:30 p.m.
Occasional Fridays: Book Babies Iowa City
Public Library, Free, 10:30 a.m.
Saturdays: Family Storytime Coralville and Iowa
City Public Libraries, Free, 10:30 a.m.
Sundays: Family Storytime Iowa City Public
Library, Free, 2 p.m.
Misc.
Wed., Feb. 20
Knit Nite Trumpet Blossom Cafe, Free, 7 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 23
Teen Anime & Manga Festival Iowa City Public
Library, Free, 2-4 p.m.
Thurs., Feb. 28
"Meet Mary Todd Lincoln" with impersonator
Marrietta Castle Johnson County Historical
Society, Free, 5:30 p.m.
Mon., Mar. 4
Define American - Jose Antonio Vargas (UI
Lecture Committee) Englert, Free, 7:30 p.m.
First and Third Sundays: Super Sunday Pub
Quiz The Mill, $1, 9 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 23
Carnival Poem and Frame Workshop Iowa
Children's Museum, Free, 9 a.m.
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
37
D ow n tow n I owa Cit y
First Friday Opening Reception
March 1st 5-8pm
Barry Phipps
I'm New Here
MilanBobysud
{
{
&
Structure
Upcoming Workshop
Sunday, March 31st : 1-4pm
Rahda Pandey : Creating Imagery using
Encaustic Wax Techniques
the Paper Nest
custom design,
letterpress printing
& supplies
www.papernestpress.com
路
220 E.Washington St Downtown Iowa City
fun stuff
great gifts
all price ranges
wooden whistles,
Connie Roberts
207 e washington, open daily
www.iowa-artisans-gallery.com
38 Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
LUCAS BENSON
www.LittleVillageMag.com
Rhyme Time
A Belated Happy Valentine’s, Little Villagers! Listed below are synonyms for two
words that rhyme followed by the number of syllables in each of those rhyming words.
Your challenge is to figure out those two words based upon the clues provided. For example, “Attractive Beast (1,1)" would be “Cute Brute.” (*Hint: In each game, there is always
one answer that is a homonym.) Good luck!
Excellent Outing
(1, 1)
Perhaps Love
(2, 2)
Concerning Ardor
(1, 1)
(Great, Date)
( __________, Romance )
(
Smooch Euphoria (1,1)
Coquetry Glee (3, 3)
Healthy Cupidity (2, 1)
Genuine Fawning (1,1)
Clandestine Valentine (4, 2)
Promises Stir (1, 2)
Unique Couple (1, 1)
Fixed Sweetheart (2,2)
Fasten Jointly (2,3)
,
)
Challenger:
The ill-tempered, libidinous couple often bickered at each other while fooling around. They referred to their lovemaking as (2, 2-2).
Dopey Version (1, 1)
Daft
Anecdote Necessity (2, 2)
Draft
Story Decay (1, 1)
Plot
No
Imperative
Indirect Analysis (2, 2)
Rot
Zero Glide (1, 1)
Narrative
Oblique
Allusion
Exciting
Writing
Elucidation Scholar (3, 5)
Critique
Reference Mix-up (3, 3)
Flow
Thrilling Composition (3, 2)
Exposition Academician
Literature Doctor (4, 4)
Confusion
Composition Clinician
Challenger:
The magician novelist, having finally completed his great work about incantations proudly referred to his book as his (2-2, 2 2)
Hokus-Pokus
Magnum Opus
Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
39
Eyebrow Shaping
Only $7.00
Coralville: Coral Ridge Mall
319-625-2005
West Des Moines: Jordan Creek Town Centre
515-223-7207
www.perfectbrowbar.com
832-277-4089
exp. 3/10/13
(Not valid with any other offer)
Eyebrow Shaping
& Upper Lip Service
exp. 3/10/13
Only $11.00
(Not valid with any other offer)
Full Face Threading
Only $23.00
(Not valid with any other offer)
exp. 3/10/13